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sapphire-innit · 3 years

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I'm not gonna apologize for there being a break because this is a hobby and I do this at my own pace lol. THAT SAID, let's hop back in!

Vod: Tommy's Exile Is Coming To A Close (rp) oh man here's the drowning again. At least Ranboo and Niki are greeting him in chat that's cute

of COURSE its raining lol, very Moody

...don't like that Tommy is actually looking forward to Dream visiting. The gaslighting is really setting in. He's not eating enough either

Tommy's always moving around, he's such an active character, so it REALLY hits when he freezes, even just for a moment or two. Yes this is in response to the funny Lazerbeam lava death comment that somehow turned very sad very quickly lol

He's very openly talking about his death too. And his skin is even worse I think, hes got SUCH bags under his eyes.. and ALSO THIS IS STILL HIM TALKING ABOUT HOW TO SEX 3 afdfd

Chat: "This is so sad and so funny at the same time" I saw that smirk cc!Tommy, you know exactly what you are doing!! LOL he broke face for juuuust a second cause that's EXACTLY the tone he's going for

I am a bit .. concerned about HTS3, because so far every time hes tried to write things down, its hmm. Been revealing to say the least

...I'm still nervous about when Dream is gonna log on, even while he's going on about the 'thinking palace'. Its... impressive how much I actually dread that, and how well they've conditioned me to expect it

adfsfdsfds Ranboo how did I laugh at that '''joke''' omg. Tommy was so happy to get mail though :( and yeah like I thought every time he tries to write things it gets sad. It's a really good storytelling device: cc!Tommy is using it to be more explicit and I think that's pretty clever actually

I can't help but wonder how carefully coordinated these exile streams are, especially this deep into the arc. Like, did cc!Tommy go on the discord before this and tell them to not visit today? Obviously Dream visits are coordinated, but I'm just a bit curious about the back end of things

"Visit Techno? no no, what would Dream think" >:(

"I wanna go and see someone, I wanna go somewhere, I wanna meet people. You know now and then it just re hits me that I actually, I actually just can't, can I" ;-;

He's self-soothing and it hurts

"My time with Tubbo has come and gone" "He chose against it" excuse me, just CRYING FOREVER NOW ;-; ;-; ;-;

...it really is disturbingly like a suicide note isn't it, with all this talk of it being his final thing to do

The days when he's not visited really set in the depression don't they? cc!Tommys still good at balancing the tone so it doesn't get too sad but SHEESH

Tommy's gotten pretty good at building actually, like he's not perfect or anything but the thinking palace looks pretty good for what it is

Its actually been half the stream without Dream thank fuck

...he's thinking about it, about going into the nether portal. GOD I'm so worried and upset because I DON'T want to see what Dream would do if he broke his exile, even knowing he wouldn't kill him most likely.

"Why did I do this, why did I make it harder for people to come visit me" !!! ahhhh realization of self-destructive tenancies fuck, and just after he almost visited L'manburg tooooo

"I'm going to revamp this, why did I do this???" *Immediately stares into the lava for SEVERAL seconds* f u c k

"Chat what is Tubbo's favorite block" Aaaaaaaaaaaa

:( :( Ranboo IMMEDIATELY willing to help WE STAN A TOMMY STAN

the fuckign GHASTS I'M!! what a tone switch!!! TOMMY WHY DO YOU NOT HAVE A BOW I MEAN I KNOW WHY BUT STILL afdfdf

those fucking jumps in the path scare me and now there's a HOLE IN THE PATH this is so fucking DANGEROUS afdsfssdf someone is totally gonna fall in that

awww cc!Wilbur watching the stream even when hes away thats so sweet <3

"...and Ill put cobblestone in the middle and everyone will come see me!" does this feel like Bargaining to anyone else? Just me? alright...

"And then we fight, we fight for everything we have left" ;u;

NIKI!!!!!!

this is gonna go so poorly!!! I hate it!!! (also don't talk over her tho pls)

is Ranboo also in the chat? Ranboo & Niki friendship underrated for sure lol

"How have you been" "................good" you can see the decision to Lie omg adfsdf

ah actually getting a fire res potion BEFORE falling into lava, one can Hope

lol Ranboo and Niki having so much trouble getting back to spawn RIP them, FUNDY why did you take them so far away and then LEAVE

"how can I be with other people and still be so alone" oof yeah thats the true bitch about what Dream's doing isn't it :(

adsfsdfsf accidentally almost getting himself banned from Twitch ALSO HOLY SHIT TOMMYYYY DON'T JUMP LIKE THAT OMG

also who the heck was chanting "do a flip" in chat holy shit what is this thirst for blood

lol asking RANBOO of all people for hot takes adfsafdf

ohnoooo almost twitch ban NUMBER 2 aadfdfws

also who the fuck was spamming nsfw copy pasta in his chat adfsfd

LOL what is the drug conversation Niki is trying to do???? What is happening???? FUNDY WHAT DID YOU TELL THEM

"I feel too old to be in this conversation" MOOD NIKI, MOOD lmaooo I love you

adfdf Tommy how can you even be mean to Niki, shes so sweet and sounds so upset about it lol

do I even WANT to know what the Dream twitter drama was????

LOL always laugh when a cc bails out of a joke lmao its so funny to me for some reason

SHES RIGHT AND SHE SHOULD SAY IT!!!!!!!! BEST HOT TAKE, REDDIT SUCKS LMAOOO ABSOLUTELY CORRECT

he keeps almost spleefing Ranboo adfdsfs

aww lol he actually is being careful after being told off lmao ohnooooo "That was worse than the time Wilbur shouted at me for being in his office. It's like being told off by the quiet teacher" NIKI IS SO DISTRESSED omg adfdsfdswfds

I think cc!Tommy did not realize the power that he wields....

OH NIKI'S SKIN IS SO CUTE!!!!

"Just a really long cross, Jesus was tall!" omg Ranboo that was actually clever

lol and now Jack is here ! nice

"Do a flip" CHAT WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

#dream smp #dream smp liveblog #tommyinnit #ranboo #nihachu #dsmp exile arc #abuse tw #suicide tw

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beneaththetangles · 3 years

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Reader’s Corner: A Disassociated Haruhi, Reincarnated Dragon Hatchling, and (Already) Dead Detective

Farewell to My Alter

A collection of one shots including the debut commercial work by Nio Nakatani, the writer of Bloom into You, Farewell to My Alter is one of the engaging volumes I’ve read in 2021, not least of which is because the stories contain twist endings. It’s like The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone, except a yuri-centered (mostly) anthology rather than science-fiction, though the stories are diverse and not just centered in modern romance, with fantasy and even high fantasy finding their way in, and even a VTuber story. A mixture of clever writing and meaningful themes are woven into the pieces, many of which had me wishing for longer form series or, as in the in the case of the final story, leaving an impression far more impacting than a 16-page manga should. Bursting with creativity, romance, and heart, Farewell to My Alter is an anthology that’s more than curiosity… ~ Twwk

Farewell to My Alter is published by Yen Press.

Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition, Vol. 4

Rumiko Takahashi continues to slowly, subtly, draw Godai and Kyoko together, even as her stories continue to be loud and often uproarious funny in volume four of this collector’s edition of the classic, Maison Ikkoku. The silly and always humorous situations around the two are punctuated further by the welcome reappearance of Godai’s lively grandmother. But even as, say, Kyoko and Godai fall into a well or as she catches him taking a girl to “rest” in a love hotel, the sweetness in their story and earnestness of their characters remains, and is heightened as both continue to grow—Kyoko toward moving on from her late husband and Godai toward become a real and true adult. Their relationship is special, and this manga is an enduring classic for a reason—a masterpiece from a master mangaka. Put down your current reads and take a trip down this nostalgic road to see how storytelling and romance do not have to sacrificed for comedy when crafted well. All these elements can all survive, and they can all thrive. ~ Twwk

Maison Ikkoku is published by Viz.*

i tell c (Chapter 21)

i tell c has ended with a whisper rather than a shout. The final arc of the series completes the tale of a specialized police unit and Risa Aioi, who becomes so obsessed with the criminals they are pursuing that she considers it to be love and, in so doing, is able to solve nearly impossible cases. The manga walks a tight-rope between being very cute and potentially upsetting regarding how its lead character is treated. With Aioi’s obsession with the criminals she is pursuing, it could get very creepy, very quickly as she turns from complete person into a tool to be utilized. Yet, the last arc addresses that well and allows her to be a more fully realized character and shows how her obsessions can even soften and change the criminals she is pursuing. While they do feature some of the best moments in the series, the last few chapters were generally very middling and did not accomplish much, so part of me wishes it just ended on the tail end of the Mar arc, but it is what it is. I still enjoyed the series. ~ MDMRN

i tell c is published by Viz Media under their Shonen Jump imprint.

The Detective is Already Dead, Volume 1

A title can sell a story, and that’s exactly what The Detective Is Already Dead did for me. I was quickly sucked into Kimihiko’s life (the main character) as a former detective’s assistant, now returning to school but once again being drawn into a mystery, and found myself more than once sneaking away to read this volume. I absolutely loved the combination of genres within—this was more than just a thriller! There’s a depth to each of the characters I wasn’t prepared for as my previous experiences with light novels have been more light and easygoing. There were also many strong one liners that struck a chord within me, such as this one: “If you’re nobody yet, that means you can become anybody you want.” I was also excited to realize how the cover plays a role within the story, a neat way of drawing events together. Having a story centered around the idea of there not being a such thing as coincidences, and memory transference concerning a certain character was genius, and the flashbacks were enjoyable as well, and in fact, my favorite part. Plus, when some really lively characters are thrown in, the potential arises for good humor, action, and character growth (all delivered in this volume). The Detective is Already Dead was indeed a very fun ride, but also a moving one, too, with a realness woven into every word that captured me, including the afterword, completing a most compelling work. ~ Laura A. Grace

The Detective is Already Dead is published by Yen Press.*

Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling, Vol. 1

There’s this isekai light novel with the title, “Reincarnated as a [something non-human],” published by Seven Seas. The protagonist starts out alone, killing monsters to level up RPG-style and gain new abilities. Eventually, the protagonist acquires a companion of sorts, but the bulk of story consists of lengthy, blow by blow combat scenes, and/or RPG-like status screen information listing skills and statistics. Now, everything I just said is equally true of both Reincarnated as a Sword and Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling. The former has eight volumes published in English, while the first volume of the latter just came out. Also, I recently called Sword a good but notably flawed light novel, and Dragon Hatchling shares those issues, on top of having weaker world-building and fewer character interactions. I think I would rate Dragon Hatchling more highly if I’d never read Sword, but as it is, I found the story underwhelming and derivative, and I am unsure whether I’ll try the next volume. In conclusion, I must be Ice-type, because this light novel was weak to me! ~ jeskaiangel

Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling is published by Seven Seas.

One Week Friends, Vol. 5

I am so struck by the turn of events in volume five of One Week Friends! I wished desperately that my words could reach Hase and that I could encourage his heart because that ending was such a heart wrecker; it had my heart breaking and me wiping tears from my eyes. That said, this is another very good volume featuring some reconciliation and friendships rekindling, as well as new ones forming. Hase was even given more exceptional growth than he in the previous volume. But then you get to the conclusion and it hits you like a ton of rocks, and you’re just trying to figure out what is going on because surely, surely, what is unfolding is not unfolding. Here’s hoping that my heart will be put back together in volume six, and that we get more sweet moments between Kiryuu and Yamagishi, and healing for others. ~ Laura A. Grace

One Week Friends is published by Yen Press.

The Disassociation of Haruhi Suzumiya

For all it’s humor and the often whimsical adventures taken by the SOS Brigade, the Haruhi Suzumiya series has from its very beginning, and by its premise, led the readers to understand that a major conflict is coming, that indeed, without it there may be no resolution to this story about a goddess who may unwittingly destroy the world if she should get depressed, angry, or jealous. After the side story tone of the previous volume in the Haruhi Suzumiya series, Disassociation moves down the path of conflict at a surprisingly quick pace. New characters are introduced, several of of which are quite fascinating, and Kyon is thrown once again into the center of a possibly world-changing event, even as the series continues to play with its novel structure in another unique and effective way, and one which aligns quite nicely with the title of this volume, both structurally and tonally. A brisk and thrilling read, Disassociation sets the stage for big events ahead, which only makes me feel more and more akin to a ASOIAF fan, knowing that as the novels get better and better, the time until a conclusion feels further and further away. ~ Twwk

The Disassociation of Haruhi Suzumiya is published by Yen Press.*

Strobe Edge, Vol. 2

Reading through Sakisaka’s works in a backwards fashion (This is the third and earliest of hers that I’m reading through) not only reveals some of her signatures story lines and “moves,” like having the boy get very physically close to the girl—practically hugging her—to hide her from an unwanted visitor, but also reminds that she often complicates situations to create conflict. I wouldn’t call these developments disingenuous (not completely), for the serendipity and chance marks almost everything that happens in her plot, but they can be frustrating. There are signs that Strobe Edge will head that way, as it does heavily in Ao Haru Ride (but far less so in Love Me, Love Me Not), though for now, the story remains fairly simple and straightforward, even as a love triangle begins to develop (and not the one that might be expected from volume one) and Ninako becomes closer to Ren. My experience with Sakisaka is that she’s at her best when her characters are at their most innocent, even if they’re struggling, and volume two still has them in this state. I hope it continues this way, because Strobe Edge is a cute, addicting read featuring leads that I already care for. I must admit, though, that one part I didn’t care for was the bonus chapter included in this collection: An 8th grade / 10th grade romance is a bit much, even if we’re told over and over again that the middle schooler is mature. No thanks. Let’s focus at just on high school. ~ Twwk

Strobe Edge is published by Viz.

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Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

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forgottenluck · 3 years

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So I am finally caught up on Arise. I’ll admit, going into it I was apprehensive, and I know very little about how the game actually plays so i can’t judge it on a gameplay point....

So what follows is my Personal opinion on it, and if you don’t like it, then that’s your fault. I’ll post it under a readmore, but i’ll try to avoid spoilers...will still tag it as spoilery though, since i know many haven’t finished the game.

Beware, this got a lot longer than I expected.

I personally believe that Arise is one of the weakest of the tales games. I can’t say much for the mobile games, and i”ve heard good things about them so i may go and try to look into them....but from the games that I’m familiar with, Arise has the weakest plotline.

I’ll start with what I liked about the game though.

It’s story had genuine moments that surprised me. They were well written moments, that stood out in a positive way. I think some of the characters have extremely good character growth, and very real situations. One of the most surprising was Dohalim. I’m genuinely impressed by how he grows through the game, and the ending result. They handled him extremely well, and he’s by far my favorite character.

There were also a few moments in the story that actually caught me off guard. Like I knew there would be a twist, but the twist that actually does happen is...not what I expected, and is done in a really interesting and integrative way.

The villains were well thought out, at least Lords wise.

....but that’s...about where my praises end.

It’s hard to put into words just everything that....disappointed me about Arise, but i’m going to try.

My first biggest issue is the first few hours of the game. I know i’m not the only one who does this, but I try to connect with the Main Character, in as many ways as I can....but it’s incredibly hard when the character only has a vague personality and literally no face. This was a cause of great unease, and disconnect for me, which put me off the game almost immediately. I’ll admit, i grew even more critical of the game after spending almost 3 hours watching a character I couldn’t connect with interact with a character who made it impossible to like right off the bat. And I do understand why they did things this way....but it was a huge turn off for me.

The characters themselves felt flat and forced, the motions didn’t exactly link up with their emotions, and felt stiff. I’ll go over these in detail, trying to avoid spoilers as much as I can.

Alphen is a character that...well, I actually like the least. He’s supposed to be the main character, but I honestly don’t really care for him that much. I feel he’s a lot of wasted potential, but at the same time, extremely overbearing. He has no rhyme or reason for his sense of purpose and justice.....other than “slavery bad. need to free.” That’s literally what his personality boils down too for the majority of the game. When he does get his memory back, it’s all of a sudden “omg i’m a horrible person” which is entirely contradiction to his character building up until that point. Granted this was meant to represent a mental breakdown, but it just....wasn’t handled well. I’ll admit he gets more tolerable around the ending but all of his speeches were the clique of clique. I get that nothing’s really unique anymore...but it just takes the cake on how clique you can get.

Shionne is....a complicated mess. She’s supposed to be prickly, and unlikable at the beginning. I realized this and didn’t pass judgement until a good ways in to the story, to give her time to develop. I do like what they tried to do with her. But I don’t think they managed to get what they wanted across. She’s very unlikable at the beginning, and only gets a little better by the middle of the game. She only truly develops towards the point of the Last Lord, and a little after. Especially towards the final battle, when she finally opens up....but even that feels...forced. A lot of the characters final growth feel extremely forced and rushed, like they accept everything at that moment only because the plot forces them too. Shionne is no exception, though her situation is the least jarring. (On the topic of Shionne though, I will admit that the romance plot between them is one of the more natural ones in the Tales series, it does develop over time, but I think the ending is still very much rushed.)

Rinwell is my next big issue. She would be my favorite character by far if it wasn’t for the major fault in her personality: her racism. It bothered me a lot, and it felt so very forced. Of course, Rinwell has plenty of reason to hate, but there was just so much of it in that tiny little body that it didn’t come across as natural. And she doesn’t get better through the game, even when traveling with two Renans for a while. She has a very real and understandable trauma, however it felt unrealistic especially when it was revealed her past. The only time she gets better is towards the end, when it’s like a sudden revelation hits her and she’s suddenly nice and happy. It was a dramatic shift to me that didn’t seem to fit with her personality.

Law is a character...I actually don’t have a lot of issues with. My main issue is how he was sort of forced upon the player out of nowhere. He’s a good, well balanced character, that really doesn’t need a lot of growth to him. Sure he has a lot of hate built up in him, but he does his job; which is the comic relief. he’s the natural born airhead, and he does a good job at it. There are a few out of character deep moments, but his tendency to just say whatever comes to him is what moves the plot along at times. I just hate how he was kind of forced upon us in the early game due to what happens with his father.

(Zepher is a character i am very conflicted about because on one hand I really liked his character, it was one of the best ones in the game in my opinion, but his speech during the second Lord’s domain was super forced in my opinion. I felt what happened with him just was very forced and quickened to make the plot go further.)

Dohalim is by far my favorite character. I actually don’t have a lot to say negatively about him. I feel like he’s the best, well written character of the group. His wants, needs are very realistic, and his desires and actions compliment that. If anything I think he takes the ‘atone for my sins’ thing a little too far at times, but he’s the character that has the most realistic growth of them all.

Kisara....I don’t have a lot to say about. It’s not that I didn’t like her. I did. She was a good, motherly character to the group, who keeps them in line for the most part. But...that’s it. I feel like she got past her anger and hate too quickly, accepting what had happened as if it was just daily life and moving on. It didn’t feel natural, but I assume she’s just the type of character to keep her worries and feelings to herself so that she doesn’t worry those around her. Which matches her motherly character.

Those are my feelings on the main characters. I won’t go into the villains for obvious reasons, but I will admit i found that the villains were well written for the short amount of time they were on screen.

I’ve seen a lot of praise for the story line.....but I don’t....really see what’s praiseworthy about it. I realize i went in extremely biased and critical, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.

I’m not exactly a fan of how Bandai has ‘reworked’ the Tales formula. I was extremely put off with no buildup to the first baddie, I felt like I had no way of knowing what the character that was in front of me was like. Not only did he have no face, but he felt so flat, mold-able....that it was off putting. To be thrown directly into the heart of a dark, devastating world was jarring enough to me to make me think.....which normally wouldn’t have been a bad thing, but with the combination of the lack of connection with the main character, I was just....lost. I wasn’t exactly interested in the story at that point. Which to me is a failure in writing. The first few hours of a game are critical in keeping someone interested enough to keep playing. If there’s a lack of connection, a lack of understanding, and a general sense of unease, followed by no real interesting reason for the characters to be doing what they’re doing that doesn’t boil down to “slave bad must free”, players are likely to put the game down. And I’ll admit, this put me off the game real fast. (But again, this is my opinion, please keep that in mind.)

As the story goes on, and we meet more characters, I did start to get interested, but it was then I noticed a lot of glaring flaws in the story itself. The first thing was that it was extremely predictable. I predicted what happens to Zeypher really fast....like only a few minutes after he was introduced. I figured out what was wrong with Shionne and her motives relatively quick. I figured out what Alphen was, or possibly was within the first boss fight. Things like this kept happening, i kept being able to predict the next big event in the game and....that sucked the interest out of me. If i can predict the game, what’s the point of me keeping going? I will admit, there were moments that I didn’t predict, like what happens in Menecia. and within the Valley of the Four Winds. But for the most part, the game was so predictable that I just felt bored more than half of the time. Tales games are usually masters of storytelling, able to put twists and turns, and turn your predictions on their heads to an extent. Of course, I understand that no story is going to be unique....but i just feel appalled that no one looked at the script and said “maybe this is a bit too predictable?”.

The second thing I noticed was that parts of the story felt extremely forced. Like it was rushed, unnaturally so. Cyslodia was a main contributor to this, the whole time was extremely forced and rushed, especially with Zeypher and Law. Later, the whole issue with Shionne and her Thorns just....bam, suddenly it’s ‘lets talk’ and it was just....not good. A lot of the skits felt like this as well. Rinwell and Law’s skits were usually not too terribly forced, but a lot of Alphen and Shionne’s skits felt forced and unnatural, mainly because of Shionne’s character flaw of not opening up. they felt awkward and again, unnatural.

By the end of the game, I realized something big, as well. Now, I understand, as I’ve said, that no story now is going to be unique.....however I feel like this story line takes the cake on a whole new level of ‘rehash’. The similarities to Vesperia and Graces are uncanny. Arise took the “planet eating world ending entity, with a child heralding the end of times (estelle, child of the full moon)” of Vesperia and the “There’s a whole nother planet out there and oh, by the way it wants to kill us, along with an entity made of energy that just wants to live” of Graces and combined it into one story. And it’s not even that well done in my opinion. Sure, it threw in a few curve balls like Renans, Dhanans, and the Heganquil.....but....at the end of the day, it’s just....a cross over of the two series with new characters? At least that’s what it felt like to me. Taking the two major plot points of previous games, one of which was recently re-released, and putting them together in one game? I wouldn’t call it lazy, but it’s definitely not the best decision i’ve seen.

Finally, I’ll talk about the ending.....while trying to avoid as many spoilers as I can. Tales games have been known for their clique “good conquers all, everyone wins in a heartfelt tearjerky way”....but it seems like that Arise took all that they could, all the cliques in the book, and put them in their ending. As well as doing things in a completely unrealistic unreasonable way. Sure it’s a good ending for the game, and it’s a happy one, but it leaves a LOT of unanswered questions. Mainly my question is ‘how the fuck is everyone still alive after that?’. (if you haven’t beaten the game, wait until you have, you’ll know what I mean then). It’s just....a confusing clusterfuck if you think about it, and have finished the game and know what I’m talking about. Most Tales games end with at least a definitive ending, that answers the questions of the game....but this one just felt so out of left field to me that it was unnatural and jarring.

Please keep in mind that these are my opinions after analyzing the story and characters, and watching an in depth play-through. You likely will have different opinions if you’ve played/watched the game yourself. I admit again, I probably was overcritical of the game, but this is the first Tales game since Abyss that i did not enjoy for the most part. It definitely has it’s good points, the characters are well designed, even if their personalities and stuff fall flat. It genuinely surprised me at times, which is a good thing. I just feel like the cons of the game outweigh the pros, in a serious way. It’s not a great game, it’s not a bad game, it’s simply....mediocre in my eyes, which is something that very few Tales games can be ranked for me. This is just my honest opinion on the game, and if you like it and disagree with me, that’s fine! I’m not gonna force my opinion on you in any way!

And that doesn’t mean I will not roleplay with characters from Arise! I want to see how people change, improve and characterize these characters! Everyone will see them as something different, and I can’t wait to see how people play them, because I felt that while there were definite issues with the characters, they were definitely the strongest part of the game.

#ToA spoilers #Tales of Arise Spoilers #Long post #please understand these are my opinions #and they may not be the same as you #but if you'd like to discuss please let me know!#outofluck

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callioope · 3 years

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Okay, well, apparently now I have to START OVER from scratch because the tumblr new post option doesn’t remember the text you already entered when you RESIZE YOUR BROWSER

*insert Zuko tantrum here*

ANYWAYS let me try to remember what I was saying before I lost like five or six paragraphs of thoughts.

Thoughts on Avatar: The Last Airbender

Overall, I really enjoyed the show. The main characters were interesting and well-written, including most of the villains, and it always felt like their actions and feelings were understandable, even when they were very obviously doing something that wasn’t good for them or those around them. (Which is not to say they were justified — just that you could understand why they felt, thought, or did something.)

On that note, it also felt like their choices and actions drove the plot, and that’s generally something I’m trying to integrate more into my own writing. It’s easy to plan a story by saying the plot is a list of things that happen, but what I want is characters to shape the plot.

What do they want? What are they able to achieve in the direction of that want? How might their flaws get in the way? How might the wants and actions of other characters get in their way? Etc.

I mean, now that I’m writing it here, it seems pretty basic and obvious as far as storytelling goes, but I don’t think it always is to some writers and there’s something about writing it out and framing it in a particular way that helps me.

While we’re on the subject of character, I think most of the main characters had really satisfying arcs. Aang is very silly in the beginning of the show (and he’s a kid, of course he is), and he grows up a lot over the series (which is actually kind of sad, but apparently his burden. I was going to say the burden of the Avatar, but I don’t think that’s even true, especially considering they don’t usually reveal who the Avatar is until they reach 16 — Aang being an exception). Obviously Zuko’s arc is the most dramatic, and I’ll get to that later, but I knew where that was going and I loved every moment of it.

Speaking of knowing Zuko’s arc ahead of time — I should disclaim that I very rarely shied away from spoilers when they showed up on my dash, so I had a pretty good idea of the main plot points of the show even if I didn’t know every detail. And while I may not have been able to state a lot of what I’d read off the top of my head, very frequently as I was watching, I’d go “Oh YEAH, I remember reading about this.”

One final preliminary thought before we dive into things, but also, I had no idea how to pronounce many of the characters’ names! I’d only ever read them before. Particular ones I got wrong: Sokka (thought it rhymes with Ahsoka), Toph (thought it rhymes with loaf), and Mai (thought it rhymes with pie). Not important but just something I found strangely jarring. Toph was weird in particular because it sounded like her parents called her “Tough” but then everyone else said her name as though it rhymes with “off”.

OKAY BUT ONWARDS

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: Book 1

Sokka

Sokka became a fast favorite! Despite his major misogyny issues, which were quickly addressed and something he grew past, I really sympathized with him early on. He has to put up with a lot! I mean, Aang is really silly and playful in the beginning and Katara often joins in. I don’t remember specific examples but if I recall, in the beginning (and actually even towards the end), he’s incredibly goal-focused and Aang keeps diverting their plans.

I’ve been told that the overall fandom of Sokka is that he’s a big dummy, and I find this baffling. Yes, he often has goofy ideas, but then often his creativity becomes incredibly helpful! He reminds me of Ron Weasley. He may not be booksmart, but he’s creative and strategic. And if you know me at all you know I love Ron Weasley. #WeasleyIsOurKing #RonWeasleyProtectionSquad

Some favorite Sokka quotes from early on:

“Oh, what, I’m not good enough to kidnap?”

“our friend is the avatar and i bet he'll fetch more on the black market”

Man, Sokka ended up having two love interests in this season! First Suki, and by the way, I was always confused about whether or not Suki was officially “part” of the crew based on the gifs and posts I saw. Sometimes seemed like she wasn’t, sometimes not. Obviously I understand why that is now, but anyways. Also I think for some reason I thought it was Toph who became the moon rather than Princess Yue. LOL! Toph/Sokka isn’t even canon but I guess I’ve seen that ship around enough I thought it was. More on Toph/Sokka later, since Toph isn’t in Book 1.

Aang

Aang is a Lot. I’ve already touched on how he’s incredibly silly and playful and the tone of the show initially is pretty goofy. It’s a kid’s show! That’s to be expected. But I really felt overly conscious of the fact that it was a kid’s show and I don’t think I would have kept watching if so many people hadn’t already raved about the show.

On the other hand, any character who decided to yell at a literal kid for “turning his back on the world” infuriated me. Like, yes, okay, that is how Aang feels already and perhaps arguably what happened, but he’s still a child, and that’s not fair to put that burden on him. I mean considering that it’s eventually revealed that the monks told Aang he was the Avatar four years earlier than usual, why would they even assume that he knew the consequences?

Katara

I did like the plot with Katara being frustrated at how quickly Aang picks up waterbending. I’ve been on both sides of that situation, and it sucks for both people. I appreciated them spending some time exploring it.

I hated Master Pakku. He only agreed to teach Katara after he saw she was his former fiance’s granddaughter, not because he had any kind of revelation that he was Wrong in his thinking. At least, that was my interpretation of that moment. Are there any other girls in his class after he agrees to teach Katara? I don’t remember seeing any.

Should I talk about shipping yet? I’m under the impression that can be a very touchy subject! Well, all I’ll say is this: seemed pretty heavy-handed in this season that Aang/Katara was the intended final ship.

I don’t have another subsection so we’ll just toss this in under Katara cuz why not: Jet is something else. SMH. I appreciate them including a character like that here, but man was he annoying. (And I know he’s supposed to be, so congratulations, effect achieved.)

Zuko!!! & Iroh

Uncle Iroh is amazing. He diverts their journey to buy a new lotus piece for his game, only to find it had been in his sleeve all along! And I really just adore how much Iroh cares about his nephew. From the beginning it’s clear that Iroh is a better father to Zuko.

This ended up continuing through the show, but I appreciated how Zuko’s story tended to parallel the story of another character (usually Aang although not always). Specifically how we learn Aang and Zuko’s backstory in the same episode.

Speaking of Zuko’s backstory, this is something I appreciate as a Well Done Redemption arc, and I know for a fact that I’ve already read posts about this but I just want to express my own appreciation for it. His redemption arc works because they show the seeds of good that always existed within him. We, as the audience, see that very early on. We see him stand up to his father’s war council and stand up for the troops they were going to sacrifice. This is *integral* to his redemption working. It’s not the only part of his story that makes it work, but that redemption arc wouldn’t have worked as well without it.

Finally on that subject, my reaction to his Agni Kai with his father: “I knew Zuko’s father was Awful, and I think I even knew he was the one who burned him, but this? This is crazy. PS: pretty sure we just saw a cameo of Azula smirking in the background!”

This was getting long, so I decided to break it into parts for each book/season.

#avatar the last airbender #avatar: the last airbender #a:tla #atla #clearly you can see i have not settled on which tag i prefer yet

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fortunatelylori · 4 years

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Remember when people were like "This sucks they should have made a mini series" and you all were "you are so dumb this is supposed to be the middle of the history, you suck you are toxic, for expecting some kind of quality, theres Theo's butt what else did you expect, good writing, good follow up of plots? sit down and enjoy season 2, we right and you all toxic for not accepting mediocrity" Theres a lesson for next time

Well ... I’m glad someone is having fun ...

However, since it seems your fingers are typing checks your ass can’t cash, I’d kindly ask you to direct me to the post where I said anyone was “toxic, “dumb”or that Sanditon was a mediocre show that lacked quality or that it shouldn’t have been a mini-series. I have a metas page set up for your convenience. I should warn you though ... spoiler alert ... no such post exists.

I don’t deny I was looking forward to a season 2 because I’m enjoying the fandom but if they had given me a complete Austen mini-series I wouldn’t be upset right now. It being canceled isn’t proof of a lack of quality or even that season 1 wasn’t half the story. In fact we know s1 one was half the story because both Andrew Davies, the creator of this show, and Kris Marshall, one of the main actors on the show, have confirmed as much.

What I have always maintainted and always will maintain in regards to the quality of the show is quite the opposite: Sanditon was a good show with good storytelling, interesting characters and a fresh take on the regency period. The reason why you and others took offence to it is because you are under the mistaken impression that the regency was one long tea party where people talked in verse to each other, instead of the most decadent period in English history. It’s not my fault, anon, you haven’t read a history book and take your historical queues from period dramas produced in ther early 90s.

That being said, if you think this show is mediocre and lacking in quality, then what are you even doing here, anon? Just google Theo’s butt every so often and stay off my lawn.

PS: any subsequent salty anons in the same vein as the above will be deleted.

#sanditon #I'll never get stalking tags of things you hate #sending me rude anon asks in the morning before I have my coffee is never a good idea

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ailuronymy · 4 years

Text

Book Club: Tallstar’s Revenge, chpt. 1-9 overview.

Thoughts on the new Windclan, courtesy of famed Erin Hunter impersonators:

“DIRT BOYS!! LET'S MAKE THEM ALL DIRT BOYS!” -- K.

"I understand we've stressed extensively that ALL Windclan love running and are skinny binches and need to be under the sky or they're sad, BUT half the clan has always been buff as fuck and live like moles :) :) we just didn't mention it before because it wasn't important to Harry's journey :) :) :)” -- S.

For this first share, we’ll keep to the questions posted earlier in the week so that there’s some kind of structure to what we’re doing! Please feel welcome to do the same and @ailuronymy + use the tag #ailuronymy writing challenge. Happy reading and I’m looking forward to seeing your feelings about this book.

1. First impressions?

S. better than Bluestar's Prophecy. K. Not as bad as BP but also hoo boy, you peel back the onion and it only gets uglier the more you think about it huh K. Me, reading the book initially: Wow I actually kind of enjoyed this! Me now: I See. I See The Truth.

2. How did you feel reading this section?

S. mostly the usual amount of exasperation! But it was also fun and I like Tallpaw K. About the same! Not as bored as BP, and I do like Tallpaw, so that's a blessing in disguise.

3. What chapter did you find most interesting/moving/effective, and why?

S. probably the one where Heatherstar causes a ruckus and acknowledges Tallpaw's best interests. There was genuinely tension and it was refreshing to have a character in authority actually act reasonably towards Tallpaw. K. I agree, that one had me really excited to read.

4. What chapter did you find least interesting/effective/most frustrating, and why?

S. I honestly struggled with chapter eight. If I have to read too much action being described, I black out. I just find it so boring. That's not actually a criticism at Erin Hunter. I just have a short attention span for people Doing Things that aren't talking, sword-fights, having big emotions, sex, or any combination. And even then, the sword-fights and/or sex still have to keep to a reasonable word limit or I wander away. I'm the worst. I'm literally like a child who only wants to eat sweets, but in written form. S. I forgot basically all of chapter eight for the above reason of being terrible, so that's on me.

K. I have nothing written at all about Chapter 7. I liked seeing the apprentice training being like, at least marginally different than Thunderclan's but also It Sucked Bad Chapter Moving On.

5. Is there a passage that stuck in your mind–for good, or not-so-good reasons? What is it, and why did it stand out? Try breaking it down and analysing what this passage does and how.

S. I actually had a nice time reading about Plumclaw and Tallkit interacting. She was talking him through having his first mouse, I think, and it was genuinely sweet and moving in a way that Erin Hunter's writing almost never is. There was a legit connection and for a moment, I actually believed in these characters as people who lived together and actually have relationships and care. That’s really what I’m about, so it was a pleasant surprise to find in this book.

K. I have two brief passages for different reasons: “He’s my son,” Sandgorse snarled. “I’ll decide his future.” Heatherstar stiffened. “I decide the future of my warriors.” LOVE Heatherstar showing the fuck up. Absolute legend. K. “Tallkit heard worry in her mew. “Is that why we tunnel under the moor?” he asked. “To hide from the dead warriors in other Clans?” — First tunnelling mention! The idea of Windclan taking shelter from/expertly evading the ghosts of their enemies because of their speed is honestly pretty fun, but I don’t trust the Erins with it one bit. K. This kind of legend is something I think I'd much prefer in like, a Watership Down style myth or story? K. But not if Erin's touching it. S. I was like, "oh this is the sickest thing you've ever--no no no no no" K. (oh, and just for fun, one of my other fave quotes was Dawnstripe saying "We guard the edge of the world." That felt cool.)

6. What themes did you notice in these chapters? What motifs or repeated symbolism/description appeared to you?

K. Love is a big one, obvs. K. Also, lots of stories and storytelling? Which feels just like Erin slapping more bullshit in here but like, that feels kinda relevant.

S. I struggled to find cohesive themes in this chunk, except I think division? The division between the tunnellers and moor runners, between Tallpaw and his mum, between Heatherstar and her clan. That's really what popped for me.

K. Oh, and like... expectations. The clan's expectations of Heatherstar, Sandgorse's of Tallpaw, Tallpaw's expectations for himself.

7. How do you feel about the characters, their motivation, their choices?

K. They're like. Not the worst? Lots of them fucking suck, as usual. But I'm at least very happy that I actually want to see Tallpaw succeed and grow. Also Heatherstar and Dawnstripe and Barkpaw are great.

S. I like Tallpaw! That's a lot of projection on my part, but I've found him a lot less grating than Bluepaw (who I also wanted to love). S. One of my first major aggravations in the early chapters is Shrewpaw. He's unbearable, and what makes him so is the one-note bullying. It's the equivalent of reading someone go, "I'm not touching you," in an annoying voice for nine chapters, which I feel is another example of Erin Hunter's habit of repetition. There was less of that in this book than BP, but I still counted a few instances of cats having the same conversation a few times. S. The other cat I can't stand is Sandgorse. My god. That moment when he tells his literal infant son to go cheer up his depressed mother made me just about scream. S. “Go cheer up your mother, child” GO CHEER UP YOUR WIFE, HUSBAND

K. This is where it's gonna get interesting, because I think my fucking senses were dulled by how much Erin fucked up dads last time, because I didn't hate him off the hop!

S. To me, he smacks of a lowkey toxic masculinity. And the kind of emotional manipulation he does makes me [narrow eyes]. S. (I didn't take very good notes about this bit, because I forgot. I only have "Sandgorse is such a loser" but I trust past me's judgement).

K. I strongly do think that my impression of Sandgorse is different if only because I think I was so tired at seeing all the non-existent dads in Bluestar's Prophecy that the fact that he actually has conversations with his son and wife for more than like, a sentence, made me go "Oh thank god" And maybe this too is a bit of a projection, but I sort of initially saw him as like... that well-meaning dad who tries to be nice but still manages to fuck up and not actually listen to what people need at all. Like, the classic stupid dad in a bad TV movie who has A Dream for his kid. Where he doesn't mean to be an asshole, he just thinks he's right and that his kid agrees with him because Why Wouldn't He. So I think I took a lot of his dialogue and actions to be a bit more well-meaning-but-still-not-great rather than fully toxic. Obviously it doesn't end well for anyone, but I guess I've just seen too many father figures go around with nice intentions who have absolutely Zero ability at reading a room let alone their kids

S. I think for me, that is the problem. And I think I am less forgiving towards it.

K. Stormtail [Bluestar’s father, Bluestar’s Prophecy] feels like more of the asshole dad, to me, but like. They're both different brands of Not Good.

S. Stormtail is super just a complete prick, no doubt. I think Sandgorse is more engaged with his kid, for sure. But I think it's a very hollow engagement, because he denies everything about Tallpaw's actual personality and desires and just sees him as an extension of himself to control. Which is sort of parental abuse 101.

K. Oh, and while we're discussing them: Palebird huh. Again, Erins, can't write a woman, but like. I don't know, I think that like... she felt like a neat character for the first chapter and now they're doing their Bad Things with her by making her boring and Just Sad and kind of useless in the background for them to mess with and probably kill off later. Like, she doesn't have a whole lot of personality, but she could. S. I think I'd like all the characters more if I spent less time with them. Like, I think for me, the pace is too slow, the dialogue is too long, and because of that, I get bored and annoyed with the characters. Whereas I think if it was only a couple of chapters, forcing the dialogue to be more punchy and illuminating of their character, and less mired in sadness (Palebird) or digging stupid holes (Sandgorse) or bullying (Shrewpaw), I'd have a lot more fun. But as it stands, Palebird starts talking and I start zoning out because they've really done her so dirty in this.

8. If you could ask any character in this section a question, what question would you ask them?

K. Heatherstar: How does it feel to be the baddest bitch in the room at any given moment K. Palebird: Why the FUCK are you with this bastard K. Sandgorse: WHY are you LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME

S. Barkpaw: what is it about learning medicine that you love? Or.... Barkpaw: how did you decide to give up your future with others, for a future in medicine? What was that decision like?

K. A more serious question from me, hehe: Tallpaw - If no one was watching, what would make you happiest to do or say? K. Shrewpaw: What about yourself do you feel most inadequate about? What part of that drives you to act towards others like you do?

S. Shrewpaw: what's your fucking damage, buddy?

9. In your opinion, what is “world-building” and how important is it to you as a reader (or writer)? How do you feel about the world-building of these chapters so far? If you could, would you change anything, and what would you change?

S. Oh, I hate it. S. What's hilarious is that for maybe the first time ever Erin Hunter is putting effort in. You can see how hard they're working to make tunnelling sound "cool" or relevant, how they're describing all these tunnel-related skills and techniques the way they do with fighting or whatever. S. And the irony is it's such a wasted effort because personally? Could not care less. This world-building enraptures me none amount and I spend the whole time scoffing like, sure Jan.

K. One of my notes off the hop is: "I know that Erin’s trying to like… make Windclan look unique by adding these new positions, but just labelling some warriors as “moor runners” doesn’t cut it. Their job is: “hunting and patrolling the borders”. That’s just? An average warrior thing to do? It’s not special, and naming it something fancy doesn’t make me feel like you’re actually adding anything to Windclan’s mythology here." Which is really just tunnel adjacent, but it's still relevant.

K. Other choice tunneling notes: "...Listen, I get it, inter-clan conflict is wonderful. But WHY do the moor runners and tunnellers hate each other? If the tunnels are so important to Windclan’s way of life, SURELY the above-ground warriors would feel respect for them? And if Windclan holds such value in their tunnels (Palebird literally just said that the tunnels mean they’re “stronger and cleverer” than the other clans), then WHY would Windclan cats hate them for it?? To have this weird seemingly generational distrust between the two castes is just. Fucking bananas." k. "Hey Erin: Why introduce the tunnellers at all if you keep putting them down and saying how much worse it would be to be one. What’s the point."

S. “I'm still not over the fact they're [Erin Hunter] like... "what can we do to make Windclan, the clan who famous won't even build nests because they like to live under the stars, special and different from the rest... oh I fucking know."

K. "Why is no one in charge in this clan that’s been a tunneller?? Heatherstar and Reedfeather just… fully don’t understand tunnelling and tunnellers needs?? If I were making this system, I’d have it be mandatory that the leader and deputy have to be one from either caste." S. Why not just ban it already. S. I mean, the book tries so hard to convince us tunnelling is useful. I believe none of it.

K. ALSO why don't the tunnelers b a t h e K. "They're permanently soiled with dirt and soot" DO THEY BATHE??? DO THEY?? WHY DO YOU HATE THIS NEW CASTE THAT YOU SEEM TO LOVE? K. Erin Hunter: look at my cool new worldbuilding set! I'm going to shit on it for an entire book

K. Like. I'm having a hard time pinpointing what I would do better, but like... I think I want it to feel 1) more cohesive and believable. 2) It needs to be useful and cement this clan as a group of living, working people. It has to make some kind of sense (to an extent) but also have a purpose! 3) sometimes worldbuilding doesn't need to be "uhh they need more jobs" sometimes it can be "we have this myth about running faster than the ghosts of our enemies" and that's just as successful if you do it right. Like, Erin thought you needed to entirely overhaul Windclan and make them Different to make them better. Instead of working with what's already there!

S. I personally feel it doesn't take much to make the clans really different from each other, and it's more the subtle things that make huge differences, not--like you said--more jobs or anything. Really don't want to blow my own horn, but like, to use the chapter I just wrote as an example: just by making elders vote to make major decisions alters the clan significantly. That's just one thing, that's putting different emphasis and a new swing on a preexisting facet of every clan. But immediately you get the effect and it has run-on effects too, which is what good world-building should do. It should be hard to remove any one piece without the whole castle crashing down. And this book is basically about how removing one “major” piece (tunnelling) effectively didn’t change anything, really. K. It just doesn't feel right to me! It's too big a change to feel natural, let alone how fucking bad it is.

K. And like, honestly, the Erins even did okay with just highlighting the territory and environmental differences! I've read all the different fucking ways they can write a forest after 30 books and they really have written them all. Even just making THAT a focal point helped to make this book feel somewhat distinct and fresh!

S. One of my long-standing gripes with Erin Hunter is that their environments are boring and basic and they need way more close detail on plants and whatnot but that is a personal preference, and not actually a flaw. Although admittedly, if you do spend time making an environment interesting, it turns out that becomes a reason to read and a pleasure, instead of something you have to trudge through to get to the Actually Good Bits. But that's not what they're about and I can acknowledge that, if not respect it.

Extra notes:

S. [Sandgorse’s] basically the dad equivalent of a pageant mum? K. Yeah! K. Sports Dads are just Pageant Mom Regional Variants. S. Oh my god.

K. The story isn't about [Palebird] and at this point it just feels kind of sad to have her onscreen. S. Yeah, I get the feeling she exists to make Tallstar feels unloved, basically. K. Which sucks! S. "Your mum likes your dead sibling more" is uhh a brutal way to tell a story, Erin.

K. For one: Barkpaw is... the best cat S. YES S. My boy. K. The Erins only know three medicine cats: Softe, Don't Fucking Touch Me, or The Only Reasonable Gay

K. 1) “Tallpaw swallowed a purr. “No racing, I promise. No having fun whatsoever on the dawn patrol.” I Love Him. 2) Dawnstripe seems nice and I think she and Stonepelt need to be friends. 3) I loved Tallpaw's little chase sequence and how clever he is :>

S. I just can't get over how much it breaks my suspension of disbelief to imagine cats digging. S. Of all things. S. I can tolerate the bullshit fighting better than I can believe cats digging with any efficiency whatsoever. K. They remind me of the Meerkats from Lion King 1/2. K. And I. K. Despise. K. That film. S. Windclan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U76zyUFg3Xo K. PLEASE END MY SUFFERING

K. I think what pisses me off about [Shrewpaw] the most, sidebar, is that he's like this from the start. Who is teaching him this??? Who is raising this little monster boy???? Who in Windclan is just? rearing xenophobes???? S. Like, he's newly born and walking around being a little fascist. S. And no-one is doing anything about it! All the adults are like, "huh, yeah, kids, am I right?" K. He isn't even as cool as Thistleclaw! He's just a little mean weasel boy! S. Sandgorse is literally like, "yeah that little weak moor runner punk child, what a coward, scared of getting sand in his eyes." Like, that's not the right response At All. K. EVERYONE IS SO RACIST ALL THE TIME SEND TWEET S. And none of the moor runners are being like, "hey stop calling him wormcat, his name is Tallpaw and he's your clanmate." S. Additional sidebar: Shrewpaw calling Tallpaw "wormcat" is my favourite thing in the book. S. It's like if I walked up to a nerd I didn't like and was just like, "lol wormboy." S. Devastating. K. RIGHT S. It's so funny. I was literally there like, "okay this is bad behaviour, Shrewpaw, that's not the right way to act, but also? fucking hilarious." K. It was funny at the start and now that it's his Thing it's even more funny. Like you can't think of anything better to say that you keep invoking the "Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?" goof at all hours. S. It kind of reminded me of the time I was teaching and I had to put a ban on the word "Elmo" because the kids kept basically making it a slur on each other, but it was also the funniest thing and it was SO HARD not to fucking lose it. S. Me, being a good teacher: "All right, that's enough, no-one is allowed to call anyone else 'Elmo' anymore." S. Me on the inside: [dying]

#ailuronymy book club #tallstar's revenge

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letterboxd · 4 years

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Wigging Out.

Australian director Shannon Murphy on her artful debut, the screaming intensity of Australia’s bird-life, and the genius of Jim Henson.

Like a rush of blood to the head, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth is a coming-of-age film that takes hold of your heart and refuses to let go. The Australian filmmaker makes her directorial debut here, from a script by Rita Kalnejais (based on her own play of the same name). It’s at once familiar and unbelievably fresh: loveable, immediately recognizable characters in situations so conflicting, painful and euphoric that it’s very hard for your heart to not break when theirs do.

We follow Milla (Eliza Scanlen, Little Women), a fifteen-year-old who is navigating her first love. The object of her affection is Moses (Toby Wallace), a low-level drug dealer and sofa-surfing addict, who is a few years older. Milla has cancer, which makes her adoration of Moses seem all the more threatening to her parents, the type of passionate-yet-complicated couple that Australian films excel at depicting. The parents are played by Essie Davis (The Babadook, The True History of the Kelly Gang, Miss Fisher) and Ben Mendelsohn (Captain Marvel, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the lovely Aussie comedy Cosi). There’s also a pregnant neighbor (Emily Barclay) with a wayward dog, a lot of pill-popping, many wigs, and the intertwining of love, fear and stress that comes with a family illness.

With a background in theater and television directing in Australia, Murphy’s eye is so strong that she was flown to London to direct episodes of Killing Eve off the back of Babyteeth’s 2019 Venice International Film Festival premiere. (She was one of two women, alongside Haifaa al-Mansour with The Perfect Candidate, to be selected in Competition at Venice—the film went on to London, AFI Fest, Rotterdam and others).

Babyteeth has captured the minds of countless viewers, entranced by the singular world being offered. Writing on Letterboxd, Isaac Feldberg calls the film “deliriously, jaggedly alive, so full of broken and beautiful people struggling not to break each other in the midst of their own existential crumblings”. This sense of all-or-nothing was also felt by Emre Eminoglu, who points to the way “it whispers to your eyes and touches your heart with words that it puts on screen”. And Savina Petkova remembers its first screening and has just one request: “Please let me live in the alternative universe where this won Golden Lion instead of [Joker] please.”

Chatting about devastation, drugs and the punk ambitions of fashion when you’re a teenage girl, Shannon Murphy speaks to our London correspondent Ella Kemp.

How did you first come across Rita’s play? Shannon Murphy: I didn’t actually see the play, which is crazy because my theater career started in the theater that it was on at, but I missed it somehow. When I came on to Babyteeth, the screenplay was already ready to go. I went back and read the play just before we started pre-production, and the thing I really loved in the play—not actually in the production but on the page—was the title chapters, and the through line of these whispers written in, of what the dead said to Milla.

What did you feel when you first read Milla’s story? I was really distraught at the end, but not for the reasons you might think. It was more because I couldn’t handle the idea that I couldn’t spend any more time with these characters. It just devastated me that my time with them was over, like with a really amazing novel, you just don’t want your connection with them to end. I thought that was a really great sign. I’d been looking for a first feature for some time, but I knew it had to truly represent my tone, and the kind of artist I wanted to show the world I was. It’s a really difficult thing to do when you’re not a writer yourself.

I felt so distraught when the film ended, and it does just give you the urge to rewatch immediately—it makes you wish it was longer. That’s so great to hear, I’ve had a few people say that they rewatched it more than once and it’s so exciting to me. That is the aim, that you make something that is worth watching again, because you know you’ll get even more out of it the more you watch it—it’s somehow gotten into your bones.

Shannon Murphy with Ben Mendelsohn on the set of ‘Babyteeth’.

One of your actors, Ben Mendelsohn, said Babyteeth is both “delightfully bent” and “beautifully Australian”. What do these terms mean to you? The offset humor is what I’d say he’s talking about, and also the idea to really push through the pain. Australians are really great at saying, “You’ll be alright, chin up.” There’s quite an optimism in our culture. In many ways I really focused on the sound design being really Australian. We shot in February, which is summer, so it was really hot, the cicadas were going crazy, and the birds—our birds sound like people screaming, they’re really intense. It brought such an Australian essence to it.

Could you recommend any Australian filmmakers or specific titles for Letterboxd members? Shirley Barrett’s Love Serenade is amazing. The Last Days of Chez Nous by Gillian Armstrong. And of course Sweetie by Jane Campion is a brilliant piece. I also love Samson and Delilah by Warwick Thornton. [See Shannon’s other Australian film recommendations.]

Moses is such an untraditional love interest, yet so charming. How did you build that character from Rita’s writing, and work with Toby to bring such a physicality to life? It was so important to me with all the characters that you didn’t judge them, despite the behaviors they’re showing because they’re under stress. With Moses it was really important that it wasn’t just about the drug abuse, that it was really about understanding the behavior behind that and why that’s happening. We worked closely with a friend of mine who is a drug and alcohol specialist, and he was always saying, “Don’t talk about the drugs, it’s not what is actually behind this.” We did detail his poly-substance abuse and what he was taking, so that at least Toby and I knew as we were charting the journey.

Toby, in his audition, was just so generous to all the other Millas in the room. Not once was he really thinking about himself, although the stakes were really high and I knew he really wanted the role. I love that, because to me Moses is a really generous person to Milla. I knew I’d have to transform him physically quite a lot, because he’s a very good-looking guy, and we also wanted to break Moses down a lot. With his skin we did that, with his tattoos, and each of his tattoos has a lot of meaning for Moses. Toby and our make-up artist Angela Conti crafted that together. And he’s a very physical performer, very in his body. Who else can pull off shorts like that, quite frankly? I just loved that about him. He’s fearless.

“Who else can pull off shorts like that?”—Toby Wallace with Eliza Scanlan in a scene from ‘Babyteeth’.

Toby gives such an amazing performance. I hadn’t seen him in anything before but a friend said she’d seen him in a Netflix show recently in which he was so despicable, whereas he’s totally transformed here. He’s really my kind of actor because you can throw anything at him and he’s up for it. He’s got an incredible range. And the same with Eliza, they can shapeshift so easily. They’re two very intelligent people, they’re able to get out of their heads and into their bodies quite easily.

I have to ask more about Eliza. How did you create Milla with her, physically, specifically in terms of her clothes, her style—I have the image of the blue wig in my mind. How did aesthetics feed into Milla’s psychology? You know what’s so funny? Everyone calls it the blue wig, but it’s totally green. I don’t know what happened in the [color] grade there, but everyone calls it the blue wig. Even Eliza in an interview the other day said the blue wig, and it was totally green! Anyway, hilarious. Everyone is calling it the blue wig so we can stick with that.

At that age, you are constantly reinventing yourself. Particularly when you meet someone you’re falling in love with, you’re like, who am I going to be to this person? Because this person is also changing who I am and how I see the world. And also she’s completely being a punk, and she’s pushing against her parents, pushing against the world. With her outfits, we spent a lot of time talking about that with my amazing costume designer Amelia Gebler. She’s so bold. We were like, at that age, you just don’t give a shit. You’re trying out different things. Also, the new generation is experimenting with fashion in a way that I think is really impressive. So we wanted to make sure that it felt timeless, and so we did the big pattern clashes for the night out, and also she’s wearing that great unicorn T-shirt, it’s so childlike, but also a bit punk-y when she’s in her home. But then she transitions from the more feminine, girly colors to lilac, which is Moses’ color for the night out. We loved the idea of them both being in the same color for that night.

And then the different wigs, we called the blonde one the Amy Winehouse wig. We would call it “wig-gate” on set, because you always had to make sure you had the right wig on during the transformations. We talked about how initially she has that cancer wig, which is the long blonde one, which is a real cancer wig from a company that makes them specifically for that. Then we moved to Amy Winehouse for the night out, and then we’d go to the blue wig. It always felt like we were doing it at points when she was really shifting emotionally, and playing different versions of herself in many ways.

What was the first film that made you want to be a filmmaker? Is it okay if it’s not a film? I was quite obsessed with Jim Henson’s television series The Storyteller. It was such a dark fable that I watched at such a young age. I remember John Hurt being the narrator, I would just get so sucked into these stories. Even still today I can remember so many of them so vividly. They were really creative. Jim Henson was someone who was so out of the box, really pushing our imagination in ways that have stayed with so many of us.

Related content

Shannon Murphy’s Favorite Australian Films

Jacob’s list of Australian Films Worth Your Time

Movie Maestro’s Teenage Wasteland: A Comprehensive List of Coming-of-Age Films

Dana Danger’s Directed by Women list

#shannon murphy #babyteeth #directed by women #52 films by women #female director #australian film #australian cinema #ben mendelsohn #essie davis #eliza scanlan #sydney #australia #coming of age #coming of age film #jim henson #the muppets #letterboxd

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seekerseekingsomething · 4 years

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Fanfiction Recs, lots of them. and Whys. (P.S. This post is gonna be HELLA long.)

I love fanfiction. I’ve been an author and reader of fanfiction for going on 15 years. my early work is actually just awful. I can’t read it. but it exists, largely.

These days my expectations of myself are much higher and my writing both flourishes and suffers as a result.

I would never have gotten where I was without the wealth of powerful stories I’ve found. some of them are complete, a lot of them never will be. And that’s okay.

Fanfiction is a transient thing, sometimes the source dissapoints us, and we lose the will to write, sometimes the fervor simply dies down as the source fades. sometimes you feel like you’re writing to nobody and either stop writing it at all or stop posting what you do write. This is fine too. I understand.

Most fanfiction will never be completed, but that is no reason to not love what is there. With all this preamble out of the way, here comes my biggest recommendations and Why I like them and what about them I find special or powerful.

I’ll start with something accessible: Marrow (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3048172/1/Marrow) , it’s a Naruto fanfiction centering on Kimmimaro and Sakura, it’s at this point a Wild AU, and it’s complete. It’s a good story because it lays character front and center, taking a bit player and pairing them up with Sakura in a really believable way, expanding the character to a unique and compelling person in their own right. The ending is IMO not great, it just ends, but that’s fine. What is there is mighty.

keeping with Naruto I’ll next recommend People Lie (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3745099/1/People-Lie), the story is abandoned, the author had tragedy befall them and take their desire to work on the story. It is a rewrite of Naruto in a much darker setting where Naruto is functionally adopted by Morino Ibiki. The world is a harsher place and much of the sunshine is blotted out, but the comedy is pitch black and often bawdy, the violence is well written and paced, the characters are a real draw. Sasuke is not only a good character in this version, but Honestly my favorite of all of them. he’s very one note in the original Naruto. read it, and like Sasuke you’ll literally never be able to forget that.

Transitioning to another fandom on the subject of comedy and character driven storytelling Jinxed for Life (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2986037/1/Jinxed-For-Life) in this story Jinx is trying really hard to be a hero, too bad the HIVE kids from her past are not content to leave well enough alone and constantly interfere with her life. A tale about people in very different walks of life, similarities and differences and a lot of budding relationships, drug use, sexual situations, longitudinal arguments about the merits of Coffee.

now for a much less accessible but EPIC length story. this story is literally more than a million words, It is a Full rewrite of the Harry Potter series, focused on a more consistantly intelligent Hermione and highly advanced Maths. The Arithmancer (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10070079/1/The-Arithmancer) and it’s TWO sequels, but seriously, this story is a character piece focusing on Hermione and mathmatics. you will learn math reading this story, you will pick up some french, you will think about politics and economics. It is a masterwork fanfiction easily surpassing the original series in my opinion(being Much less problematic for one). Easily worth the time sunk into reading it.

speaking of problematic and harry potter, we have Glass Silence (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8421972/1/Glass-Silence). A WLW fic pairing an alternate version of Hermione who never attends Hogwarts ending up working for the three Black sisters and through wicked means ending up orbiting each of them in turn. sexually explicit, if you don’t tell FF.net, I won’t either. Lots of dark themes, very heavy story that will suck you in and hold you under for longer than you think you can manage.

Speaking of darkness and death, Ghosts of the Federation *(https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10035862/1/Ghosts-of-the-Federation) This one is Heavy. It’s about inevitability, it’s about duty, honor, and why we do what we do. It’s about philosophy, and throwing people out airlocks because nobody will pay their ransom. It’s about religion, and prejudice. It’s about a great many things, but even if you have Absolutely no idea what FTL is about, you should read this story anyway. You will not be dissapointed.

Bouncing back to AU but going lighter not darker, keeping the sex but stepping back from the Violence we have Universal Truths (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13397143/1/Universal-Truths) I’ll let the author’s summary stand on this one “ Hermione Granger is a single woman of intelligence and spirit. Draco Malfoy is a man of wealth and privilege. When they meet again, a decade after the second great wizarding war, they are not impressed. But when circumstances throw them together dislike turns to attraction - which may turn into something more - if they let it. A Dramione take on Pride & Prejudice “ Just finished recently and I laughed, I cried, and I desperately wished everything would turn out okay.

Speaking of Harry Potter and AU’s This one is Wild, The Gates of Azkaban (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13092314/1/The-Gates-of-Azkaban) This one is Complex. It’s both a Marriage Law fic, a Time Travel fic, and a hard AU to the main series. I normally dislike those first two of things, but by the sun and stars this story makes me reconsider. It’s nowhere near finished but what’s there is already a Journey. Come for the charming characters and much improved, actually-redeemable Severus Snape, Stay for the Young!snape/Hermione? Never thought I’d say that phrase, but here we are, I’m as startled as you. (also Lily potter is a BRAT in this one.)

speaking of unusual pairings, I’m going to plug something from an older source being updated very occasionally, Echoing Through Eternity (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13569190/1/Echoing-Through-Eternity) politics, mercenary work, ice king seeking ice queen sort of story. Fujin/Squall, hasn’t really gotten going, but what’s there is passable and might actually turn into something fun. I’ll admit, I have a love of FF8 and there’s not a lot of compelling fiction for it IMO.

Another one for the “the pairing is what?” and that’s the point. Morbid Curiosity (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4036331/1/Morbid-Curiosity): Hidan/Sakura, specifically Hidan’s severed head. what could go wrong, trying to befriend the head of an immortal zealot? complete, with an unfinished sequel. such is Fanfiction.

And I could sit here individually recommending every fic on my alerts and favorites list, but this will have to do for now. I hope everybody who reads this finds something they like, Remember, if you liked it, leave a review, even a one word review means the world to the author. Yes even if the story hasn’t been updated in a Decade. brighten someone’s day :)

#fanfiction #fanfiction recommendation #Naruto #Harry Potter #I read a lot of fanfiction in popular catagories even though I'm not a fan of the main series #because the biggest communities attract enough attention to find diamonds more frequently #at least I'm honest #FTL #final fantasy 8 #Mass Effect #Game of Thrones #Teen Titans #gimme Recommendations #I need good things to read

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chronically-illustrated · 6 years

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I’m so full of emotion after the end of Detroit: Become Human. I’ve been waiting for this game for years - I followed its development since the Kara tech demo in 2012. It was everything I wanted and more, and experiencing it along with Jack and the community made it even more special. I’m so glad I waited to watch Jack’s playthrough before seeing anyone else’s.

I’m going to write a bit about my thoughts on it and why it was an important game, but I’ll put it under a “read more” thing because it’ll be long and spoilery.

As Jack noted, the story isn’t anything incredibly unique, and the characters - as much as I love them - are pretty standard archetypes for this type of narrative. However, I think it’s pretty important that throughout human history, we return to stories in this vein over and over because they resonate with us. The story of an oppressed people rising to freedom and demanding to be seen as equally human is older than the written word. It’s an important story to tell, because it’s relevant for every generation as long as we have inequality of any kind.

This game had a lot of parallels to current events in the United States. I was particularly reminded of the police violence against the protesters in Ferguson in 2014. The protests began peacefully, but a militarized police force started attacking the protesters and everything escalated. If my memory is correct, there wasn’t even any vandalism before the police showed up and started using violence against peaceful, unarmed protesters. The events and the media coverage of those events were almost painfully similar to what happened in Jack’s playthrough with Markus - he broke into the CyberLife store and tagged the park, so there was some vandalism and property destruction, but the protests and marches were peaceful, yet they were portrayed by the media as violent terrorism and the police force didn’t hesitate to use deadly force against them. I cried during every one of those scenes because I’ve been seeing that kind of stuff happen to real people in my own country over the last few years.

It’s a bit distressing to know that there are people who will play this game and be absolutely in favor of the android revolution, but turn around and disapprove of the real-life protests happening for very similar reasons. That’s why it meant a lot to me that Rose drew a direct comparison between what was happening to the androids and what had happened to Black people. I hope that makes players think about their opinions of current events and develop more understanding and compassion for their fellow humans who are suffering. I appreciate Jack pointing out that the enslavement of Black people lasted for hundreds of years in his commentary at the end (even though I cringed a lot when he used the phrase “colored people” - I know he just misspoke and didn’t mean it to be offensive but that’s a bad, please don’t use that phrase). The intergenerational effects of that history are still influencing how people of color are treated now, especially through institutionalized racism and racism in law enforcement. I really appreciate seeing the creators behind games using their influence and storytelling ability to talk about these kinds of issues. I really hope that this game opens a dialogue that moves us forward in our understanding of and compassion for each other.

In terms of game mechanics, I’m absolutely blown away. Quantic Dream is my favorite studio (even though Jack’s critique of the tendency to leave plot holes is absolutely accurate) and I think they delivered spectacularly with this game, especially in terms of how even small choices could change the course of the story. It was a truly choice-based game to a degree I’ve never seen before. I do understand Jack’s frustration with how it was hard to predict what each choice would actually do, especially since those small choices can have huge consequences. On one hand, it’s a good way to simulate how you have to make on-the-spot decisions in real life without knowing exactly what the consequences will be, but the fact that you get one-word choices and then the characters will do and say things you didn’t expect from the one you picked is kind of unfair. If small decisions are going to have major consequences you can’t predict, you should at least be able to know fully what those decisions are when you choose them. Overall, though, the choice-based aspect really impressed me. It made everything feel important, so you were incredibly invested in every single scene. The dangerous moments actually made the muscles in my neck and back tense up so much that I’m sore! The sound design was fantastic, especially during the scene with Markus in the junkyard - that moment when he put the audio component in and the sound suddenly rushed in made me gasp. The music was incredible and I would love to buy the sound track. The voice acting and mocap were absolutely brilliant, and I love it so much that video game technology is advancing to a point that the voice actors are also fully acting in the roles of the characters like they would be if it were a movie. I probably appreciate this especially because I suck at actually playing video games, so I only ever watch other people play, so it’s always sort of like watching a movie (but way better because of the interactivity). It adds so much to my viewing experience to see really good acting in games. All the acting in DBH was awesome, but Bryan Dechart’s performance with putting more and more emotion into Connor’s voice and facial expressions was particularly excellent. The character models were all beautiful, but what stood out to me most was how alive the eyes looked. Any artist who’s tried to do realistic eyes knows what a challenge it is even in a still image, and to be able to make every character’s eyes look real and alive in all different lighting? I am absolutely floored. Like I said, Quantic Dream really delivered with this game.

I’m really proud of how well Jack did with this series and I absolutely bawled when Hank hugged Connor at the end. Well done all around!

#jacksepticeye #detroit become human #dbh

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pizza-is-my-buziness · 6 years

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I 100% agree with you about Ruby. 😢 Her mom could've just been put in jail and Shield could've taken Ruby in. They could've taught her how to better herself and show her how to contribute to the world. Maybe even have her own girls nights with Daisy because I highly doubt that she had alot of bonding time with anyone else other than her dog. I feel like they missed out on a big opportunity there and I feel really uneasy about this. 💔

Thanks for coming to talk to me, anon! I have a lot of feelings about this!

I feel like AoS has a very strict/weird policy on their villains -unless they are Ward (or another white, male character.) Ward keeps showing up and showing up and showing up (honestly I’m shocked he hasn’t made his appearance in this season but there are still, what, like 5 episodes so you never know.) Yeah Garrett died but he kinda did that to himself plus Bill Paxton was kinda that “special guest star” thing anyway but Ward -despite everything he did to the team- not only get to survive but he also lived in their flipping basement.

Season two…Jiaying? Dead. Daisy’s father, arguably worse than Jiaying in the sense of the crimes he actually committed not the ones he intended to commit -survived and got to start over from scratch.

With season three, your original villains were Lash and Rosalind -both of whom died. Even Lash, who was really not a villain but still kept that ambiguity about him, ultimately had to go.

Ophelia/AIDA actually reminds me a lot of Ruby in the sense that she was created to be what she was. Ruby, like AIDA, ultimately would have started off innocent -a blank slate. AIDA was taught to lie by Fitz and Radcliffe and then made into a weapon for Radcliffe’s gains and was also made into this villainous human/Inhuman by Fitz. You guys know I have a lot of feelings about Ophelia so I won’t get into them here but ultimately she was what Fitz made her and when she reacted in the only inevitable way given the circumstances and the fact that she had actual human emotions for literally five seconds, she was also killed. Ivanov made it (in some form) to another season, much like Ward.

And Deke, who was a huge asshole, betrayed the team, sold Daisy into slavery for a profit, is somehow hanging out with the team, falling “in love” with Daisy and seen as this cute, puppy-dog cling-on that makes everyone roll their eyes and shake their heads in an “oh Deke!” way but he’s never actually apologized for what he did and I have the feeling we’re supposed to say Daisy’s “hatred” of him as an obstacle he simply has to overcome to win her love.

I won’t even go into Fitz here because I just can’t.

And Ruby, who I guess is the villain (though I think she’s ultimately meant to be just the means and that Hale or possibly even Elena is really the Destroyer of Worlds -I have thoughts on this) is also now dead and even though I knew it was coming I really didn’t expect it like that. Like ultimately that was a terrible way to have Ruby go out because she and Hale were finally connecting and Daisy was there to help Ruby and Ruby was frightened, remorseful, overwhelmed and very much the kid that she’s never been before and Elena took her out in what was ultimately a vulnerable moment not only for Ruby but for everyone there. And I am definitely not arguing that her revenge wasn’t just (in a sense) because Ruby had no reason to do what she did to Elena because it was definitely crossing a line in terms of defense/battle (I guess) but Ruby was a little kid, probably no other than 16-18 and, like Daisy said “she can’t help the way that she is.”

Ruby could have been a really great addition to the team. Even Daisy thought that and she had interacted with Ruby for, what, 5 minutes during their “fight”? Ruby could have been a legacy of sorts, something to prove that SHIELD was good and right and that they really were making a difference. I think we, as an audience, are supposed to see Daisy in Ward and Daisy in Ruby and are supposed to be under the impression that if Coulson hadn’t found Daisy, that’s what Daisy would have become -in some form. But because “the right person didn’t give up on” her, she became this amazing hero. Even Ruby said “you were my hero” in a way that suggests that she (possibly) looked to Daisy to save her, at least at one point. So I feel like Ruby could have been a continuation of the good that Coulson and SHIELD did when they found Daisy. And Daisy could have mentored Ruby the way that Coulson had done with her, could have helped train and teach and guide Ruby. Like why make all these comparisons and connections if you’re ultimately just going to kill Ruby off like damn that sucks! Crazy bitch, am I right?!

There’s so much that could have been done with Ruby’s character. I think that’s the part that annoys me that most is from a writer’s standpoint there’s so much that could have been done or explored, so much good writing and storytelling there but it was tossed aside for the ‘easy’ route. Ruby, like a lot of the villains/characters they’ve had on the show that have died, was a lot of of interesting loose ends that we’re supposed to feel are resolved because of her death, I guess.

And yes, anon, I agree! I would have loved to see Ruby heal and redeem herself, to grow and bond with someone -Daisy especially. She saw her mother as a “weakness” not an actual connection or form of human comfort or companionship. It would have been great to see her start to let down her walls, to grow more emotive, to connect with someone.

I feel like one of the overarching themes we’re supposed to get out of the show is “hope.” There’s hope for everyone -like with Daisy and May and their found family connections. There’s always hope to save the world, to fix the problem, to make it better. There’s hope in getting out of these terrible situations. But when it comes to characters like Ruby, who could have used the hope of starting over, of having a second chance, they don’t really get that.

But, I dunno, maybe I’m just tired.

#aos spoilers #long post #I have a lot of feelings I guess #this is really just my thoughts so take it or leave it I guess

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apieters · 3 years

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The clash of steel rang on the streets of the Magic Kingdom as a furious duel erupted in New Orleans Square. In the midst of a band of soldiers all the way from Agrabah, lead by Captain Razoul, two swordsman stood their ground, slashing and thrusting back-to-back against superior odds—in other words, it was a fairly average Friday afternoon for Christopher “Chris” Carnovo and André Caron, the Swashbucklers of the Magic Kingdom.

A stranger duo couldn’t be found from the Frozen lands of Arendelle to the Primeval World. Chris was a young, greyish-blue tyrannosaur, dressed in a blue pirate’s coat belted with a white sash, wielding a rapier with lightning-fast thrusts. André was a young man with shaggy brown hair and a black padded jacket, slashing violently at his foes with a sabre. The soldiers of Agrabah pressed hard on every side, but the odd pair had two things in their favor—they were both masters in the art of swordsmanship, and they had been fighting together since childhood.

Chris and André had a long and colorful career—starting as privateers in their youth, the two had almost single-handedly cleared the seas of pirates such as the notorious Captains Nathaniel Flint, Henry Morgan and “Black Bart” Roberts, before taking up service as fight choreographers in their young adult years. The two friends had choreographed almost every fight scene in almost every movie made in the Magic Kingdom, a land of princes and princesses, wizards and witches, pirates and knights, talking animals and other motley characters. Under the leadership of Mickey Mouse, the protégé of the late Good King Walt, the Magic Kingdom was a land of art, culture, and storytelling, producing some of the finest movies in the world. But while some made their names on the silver screen as actors or served the Kingdom as statesmen and captains of industry (often all three), others made their names behind the scenes. Chris and André belonged to the latter category, but their work had made them many friends all over the Magic Kingdom—friends that sometimes had need of their special set of skills.

“Just once, I’d like to be called in for a favor that doesn’t involve the risk of getting stabbed!” André Caron snapped at the tyrannosaur as he slashed up, knocking a sword out of a soldier’s hand.

“We’re professional swordsmen, André,” Chris shot back as he spiraled his rapier, sending another scimitar flying out of a soldier’s grip. “What kinds of favors do you expect people need from us?” He lunged to the side just as a soldier was trying to flank his friend, arresting the attack. The two shifted positions effortlessly, their efforts coordinated like a dance. “Besides,” he smirked, parrying a wild cut from another soldier, “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“I left it at home with the good book I was reading!” André shouted. A soldier rushed him and he grabbed the soldier’s wrist, wrenching his arm back before kicking him into his comrades.

“So, you don’t think we should be out here rescuing our friend?” Chris asked, spiraling his blade to intercept a cut and slashing at a second swordsman before thrusting over his shoulder at the first.

“I never said we shouldn’t be here,” André said, smashing his guard into a soldier’s forehead before parrying another incoming strike. “Just don’t expect me to be happy about it!” He swiped wide, left and right, whirling his sword in a dangerous dance of steel. He plowed through the soldiers, knocking them this way and that, clearing a way for the tyrannosaur. “Alright, Chris, I’m holding off as many as I can. Find Razoul and work your magic.”

This is the opening scene of a Disney fan-fiction story I’m rewriting. I started writing it for a couple reasons:

1) Chris needed a home. I’ve been drawing this swashbuckling tyrannosaur and his human companion (yes, André is named after me—there aren’t enough characters with my name, and that needs to be fixed) for just about 20 years now, and figured he needed a proper story. But what kind? Well, as I looked back, I realized that he was always sort of inserting himself into whatever I was interested in or reading at the time—piracy, Disney movies, books, etc. He was always a fan-fic character. So he needed to be in a fanfiction story. And as I tend to prefer a Disney-esque/traditional Western cartoon style, I decided he needed to be a Disney character—just one who works off-screen.

2) I really want to write original stories. I have at least 3 or 4 solid concepts, but when I decided in college that I wanted to write, I figured out I SUCKED at dialogue. And pretty much everything else. I had some raw talent, but of course that’s never enough—and being a perfectionist, I wasn’t going to waste an original story as my first attempt at learning the craft of writing. So I started exploring blogs about writing fantasy and credible, published authors all said the same thing: they started by writing fan-fiction. The reason they gave was that it was motivating because you already love the characters, and the world building and character creation is done for you (you can learn those skills later), leaving you free to focus on more fundamental aspects of writing craft—things like dialogue, pacing, plotting, planning, description, active vs. passive voice, all that jazz. So I decided to follow their advice.

I said earlier I was rewriting it—well, I got a little more than halfway through and the story just ran out of gas. The characters, I realized, would never and could never do the things necessary to advance the plot without breaking character, getting themselves killed, or using a dues ex machina. There were too many dangling plot threads, too many unnecessary characters, and after five years of intermittent drafting (I was in college, then I’ve had a day job or been job hunting ever since—I’m busy) I had gotten to know my characters (or my interpretations of several preexisting Disney characters) well enough that I could see major inconsistencies across the 200+ pages I had written. So I decided to go back to the beginning and rework the plot, making it a lot more consistent and focusing on a tighter core of characters. This scene was not in the original draft, and I think it establishes my characters far better than what I’d written before (which was essentially an info-dump of exposition—classic mistake).

Artist Behind the Scenes

Illustrating the picture presented several difficulties—one, I absolutely loathe myself for constantly choosing ground like grass or—in this case—cobblestones, which require a lot of repetitive, regular shapes. But that’s what the picture required, so I decided to make the cobblestones a little scribbled and blurry, and made the background lines thicker and fuzzier too. The biggest challenge was drawing multiple opponents—each guardsman is a unique person and requires individual attention to meet my minimum visual quality standards, and I can’t get away with vaguely soldier-looking blobs (as I’ve done in other pictures) since they are an integral part of the action that is the main focus of the piece.

The solution was to remember the adage, “the essence of the picture is the frame.” By positioning Chris and André just right in the frame and filling up as much space as I could using them, I could get away with only drawing parts of most of the guardsmen to give the effect of an outnumbered, chaotic street duel. I ended up framing the two characters with a ring of enemies, with Razoul appearing in the back to round out the impression of being surrounded on all sides.

The scimitar sabres (“scimitar” is a European butchering of the Persian shamshir) were a compromise between the way the Agrabah guards’ weapons appear in the movie Aladdin (where they are comically short and fat and have a clipped point) and real weapons. No actual Middle Eastern sword, to my knowledge, ever had a clipped point, which was actually a common feature of European single-edged swords like falchions and messers (which probably were the real inspiration behind Western artwork’s depictions of Eastern sabres); few sabres were ever as fat as the cartoons make them out to be; and most Middle Eastern sabres have straight, not recurved quillons. Most real sabres were relatively narrow, light swords meant for slashing/draw-cutting from horseback, not percussive chopping, and instead of a clipped point Turkish sabres often had a flared, double-edged tip called a yelman. I was thus faced with an artistic dilemma: integrity to reality or integrity to the source I was emulating. These are supposed to be the same guards as appeared in the “One Jump Ahead of the Breadline” musical number in Aladdin, armed with the same weapons; yet the action is taking place in “real life,” off-camera. I ultimately decided on a compromise: the scimitars would retain the same shape and features as in the movie, but I edited the dimensions to look a little more like real swords instead of meat cleavers.

(Disclaimer: Chris and André belong to me—everything else belongs to Disney).

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elizabethrobertajones · 6 years

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With how things are going, I have to wonder - did TPTB give us the Huevas as a 'there, we don't hate gay people' token and were we wrong in reading it as a subtext-to-Destiel thing? Lizbob, I'm getting desperate. The 'so introduce me' line was so - it's what you say to kids, right? And the UST is completely gone... :(

Hi there!

Is this because of this post from the other day where the line about “twice the worries about being ganked” was put under some destiel stuff to show that Dean had in fact doubled his worries about getting ganked? And also explains why he keeps telling Cas not to do anything stupid, because he’s worried, and not because he thinks Cas is actually stupid… Buckleming dialogue or not it’s calling back to 12x10 where Dean had to clarify this for Cas and admit he can say stuff like that when he’s worried. I’m not saying it’s very nice to keep on heckling Cas instead of just saying he’s worried, although I do feel the choice of writer really waters down the nuance in how that scene could have gone which would show Dean actually learned anything from 12x10. And while Cas shouldn’t have to expect to deal with Dean caring about him this way, at least we’ve already covered this in the text :P

But anyway, to me personally I just don’t write about Destiel that I see in the show with expectations that it will go canon, not because I’m negative or wanky about it (although, usual disclaimer, of course I’m very opinionated on if it SHOULD and the obligation the show has to do what they are constantly teasing, I just separate out these two things to write about the present moment of the show and the future, one of which takes a lot of explaining and one of which is extremely one note obvious of “make it gay, you cowards”), but just that I don’t want to engage in the cycle of optimism/despair that having Destiel hopes causes, specifically because I’m a popular meta blog that writes about Destiel in the text, and also because of people like you who get their hopes up and then get hurt.

I will probably merge expectations with demands when the show is actually definitively heading towards the end and we all know it is and it’s out there on the table. In the mean time, I’m happy to let this all carry on as it’s carrying on without feeling like there is a deadline or set moment for any one thing to pay off for us. The show takes its sweet time to address things which seem OBVIOUS, for example looking at the way side characters disappear and return sometimes like 3 or 9 or 13 years after we last saw them to get some closure on something or other. And it takes them years to chase down a main arc idea and pin it successfully. And some of the reason character development stuff links so well back to season 1 is because the progress Sam or Dean has made on it since season 1 has been in a series of recursive loops which seem to get somewhere only to be pulled back without reaching actualisation and either start again immediately or crop back up in the text much later as a character arc, starting over again as if it never really reached its conclusion.

Dabb era has been good about excavating some of these more ridiculous concepts and putting them on some no-going-back type arcs, for example for better or worse the issues they have with Mary have *utterly* shifted ground and can never go back to the same background noise they used to be. Mary is no longer a childhood memory and enshrined as the family martyr, and as I talked about a lot over the last hiatus doing rewatches, the attempts to make her deeper/tie her into the mythology, never actually addressed a change in the way they felt about her, maybe not even realising it wasn’t healthy for them to feel that way about her for the rest of their lives in the difference between normal mourning and revenge quests etc and how that meant they could never leave her behind and move on. I mean there’s a LOT of work to be doing with them if there’s any sort of happy ending to come, but since Carver era the writing has spent so much time trying to understand why they feel bad and putting them through hell for it, and especially in Dabb era now doing work to make them recover and to explore ways they can change, that it seems really depressing to waste the good work by killing them off. So that’s a sort of broad optimism about what they’re doing :P

But that broad optimism is really as far as I’ll dare to venture about endgame, so talking about Destiel is mostly about what I see in the text and how it relates to their character arcs and how I see that informing them and therefore hopefully if there is a happy ending, the intrinsic way this relationship matters to Dean and Cas will get happy pay off as well, because of all the aspects being explored in their character arcs, their relationship ties is all together so nicely and what they would benefit from each other would cement a happy ending for them.

I can’t be completely responsible for the impression people get about what I want from canon in the stuff I reblog but I’m really hesitant to go past lines like nervously laughing and doubting what’s going on in canon as a joke about how Destiel it all looks, while trying to avoid posts that talk about how inevitable it is without some very good reasoned discussion that I agree with. I try very very hard to make this blog always toe a line of enjoying what I enjoy without trying to sell too much or sound like I’m promising something. I like a lot of stuff like re-exploring old seasons or what I did this summer over my rewatch, looking back on old canon and looking at how it has all the unwitting groundwork for the story that ended up being told, and where all the character arcs start and how they’re used in later canon etc.

I agree a theme the last few years has been digging up this character stuff and making it extremely clear or textually stating things for the first time, and especially this year coupled with themes of misinterpretation or not reading the picture correctly or working on misinformed intel. Dramatic irony has never had that much importance in telling the story either. This season has been really intelligent about these themes and last season did a LOT of stuff with characterisation to show how they understood them and old character stuff they were resolving or exploring for the sake of improving the characters. Cas got a final build up for his depression arc to lead him to the worst possible point, and he’s now on the other side of that so the only way is up. Performing!Dean got completely dragged in some episodes, especially 12x11 which did it kindly and gently, and 12x22 which just used a grenade launcher to do it :P

There’s a lot going on but I don’t really like saying it all inevitably ends up pointing to canon reveals about Destiel, especially when that’s the most contentious thing and really hurts a lot of people to build up expectations like that, and it makes people angry or makes them fall out of love with the story because they lose objectivity and start making angry demands about when they get their emotional pay off, even though the story is still unfolding. Stuff which is happening along the way for later character pay off is seen as trashing the character and everything they previously stood for, and it becomes miserable for everyone. I’ve seen this happen in every single faction of the fandom and it’s nothing to do with the quality of the writing or actual treatment of the character/relationship, and an awful lot to do with poorly managed emotional investment and said investment being a finite resource. It’s UTTERLY depressing to watch a fandom friend melt down and begin to hate everything you once loved and I think watching that process has a lot of toxic fall out for everyone else around them who also loves the thing, because we sympathise and we’ve been watching it in slow mo and probably agreeing with a lot of the initial problems they have before it escalates. I HATE watching that happen. I will try as hard as I can to never be responsible for causing it in other Destiel shippers, so I try to make my jokes and comments stay as much as possible on the side of not trying to imply the show has any huge Destiel plan that we’re seeing the early stages of and patience will make it bear out. Because that’s not even how I see the show anyway but sometimes things like Dean giving Cas a mixtape create a *lot* of hyperbole and I’m not emotionally responsible for you all, technically, so I am allowed to have some fun :P

All this is to say, I’m really sorry you’re feeling desperate and have been reading everything as signs we’re definitely getting Destiel, because there are no signs we’re definitely getting it, but there’s also no signs we’re definitely NOT getting it, and a whole bunch of murky grey area including an entire show worth of supportive subtext, character interaction, main text and plot arcs which back up the *existence* of Dean and Cas being madly in love with each other. The wank comes when you spend all your time harping on one or the other extreme, assuming everything is signs or proof/not proof.

I think the recent storytelling has been extremely positive towards Destiel and put an awful lot of it into the text, to extremes which have never really happened before: season 7 with dead Cas used that to get some understandable angst out of Dean, but it constantly emphasised how everything sucked, Cas had of course betrayed Dean and caused all their problems, both personal and mytharc, and so resentment and anger were mixed with grief, and for the most part as much as stuff was happening to them emotionally, the episodes weren’t intrinsically structured around showing what the grief had done to Dean, or that he stopped functioning without it. Compare the kid gloves about what Dean does in 7x03 killing Amy, and how it tentatively links back to Cas but only when Dean admits that he’s had a hard time trusting anyone after Cas, to Dean vs Jack culminating in Dean screaming in Sam’s face about how Cas’s death has hurt him and he can’t unsee it on Jack.

And then of course the whiplash on getting Cas back, which Dean never had in season 7, and at best 8x08 was that episode - like a year after Cas was alive again and a whole fresh round of death and guilt and Cas coming back later so in a completely different context. And still nowhere near as good as what happened in 13x06 because there was still a lot of tentative TFW rebuilding to do in 8x08, while by now it’s completely accepted they’re a family unit and it’s been textually stated several times and 12x12 especially was tuned to showing how absolutely final that statement is. There’s no need to be tentative when Cas comes back now - Dean can just let go and enjoy himself for as long as that lasts.

I’ve been answering asks about the UST being gone since I’ve been in fandom, like, season 10, and I do kinda think that the heyday is ONLY seasons 4-6, after which Cas and Dean actually like each other and their relationship moves to more comfortable ground, and romantic tension and coding is way more the order of the day from Carver era onwards. There’s a few things like the boner scene or Dean in the car in 9x06. TBH 13x06 was the first time in ages I thought we’d actually had a scene where the two of them were having sexual chemistry, in the obvious mirror scene to the car in 9x06 bit, but also the entire underlying joke about Dean’s ‘cowboy fetish’ that Cas knew about from season 6, his entire reaction to it, including complaining that Dean made him wear the hat but then voluntarily playing along *for Dean* on their way into the crime scene, his FACE while doing that, and Dean’s reactions to Cas through all this. For the most part they’re considerably softer and more hesitant with each other and that involves much less interaction right up in each others’ faces and much less frustration which then translates to UST quite easily as well as being regular old tension.

In addition to that, the “i do” and that hug scene apparently convinced people in living rooms across the world that Dean and Cas had been about to kiss and that it was horrifically romantic, and a fake out which genuinely shook people into seeing something going on there who had not previously seen it and even actively disbelieved their shipper friends and family. Of course that’s all down to how Dean and Cas look at each other as they come in for the hug, so their magnetic attraction to each others’ faces is still an ongoing issue :P

Their interactions are being told in a pretty different way these days, which includes a lot of romantic stuff which is far more overt, and in making their relationship intrinsic to the plot and to each others’ own feelings, all of which I’ve written about so much lately because, well, it’s the main thing going on around here :P I actually feel like this is an extremely good time for if you care about their relationship, to get it in the story as a powerful force and important piece of the story. Things like the issue of clarification - I vs we, and need vs want - are coming back around as themes and that means the issues they’ve caused between Dean and Cas are being addressed or examined again, hopefully to some permanent end. And if not, at least so there’s a fresh examination in recent canon, although as I was saying Dabb era has been changing things in ways it’s hard to back off from later, like that Dean has repeatedly clarified to Sam that his feelings about Cas are the cause of his behavioural changes, even if he doesn’t say what those feelings are, it’s clear that they are affecting him. I mean there’s a part of me that has to read it that Dean hasn’t even realised exactly why he feels differently about Cas than Sam does, he just does… :P

Anyway I really just didn’t want to reassure you without addressing the fact I hate reassuring people things without trying to avoid causing more problems later. I don’t want people to feel strung along either by the show or by ~meta writer promises~ … which, aside from a few people who really were doing it for attention, generally seem to be from people actually just reading the text and being hopeful themselves, not trying to make a cult gathering or get attention or even just try to hurt people. I really urgently would like people to be more credible about where their hopes are coming from and how to feel about it.

Not to say that you should stop believing everything you hear meta writers say, by a long shot, but to evaluate how likely you feel the speculation that comes from that can be, and how much you do and don’t agree with the analysis they make. And if you agree with the analysis and do see that all the Destiel stuff people point out IS in the show, then you can see that it’s there or not, and decide how you feel about what the show is doing with it as a separate thought. I’d rather not get caught up in pt.2 of it because it’s just frustrating and depressing at this stage of the game, but pt.1 is fascinating to me, it doesn’t detract for me personally to have it not unambiguously stated, and whether Destiel does become unambiguously stated or not I don’t think *any* of the Destiel analysis I agree with/have made is *wrong* because that reading is freely available to make, in large print text and accompanying audiobook >.>

#Asks #if you're starting to feel like canon doesn't have any of what you used to love it in then honestly taking a break is not a bad idea #watch Shadowhunters or Black Sails or something else with representation to varying degrees of subtlety #(i mean those are the extreme degrees :P)#and then come back later to Supernatural when you feel a bit less on edge about what it can give you #there's a gay couple in the new star trek!#hmmm #anyway #I know how much it would mean for this specific ship to go canon BELIEVE me #but I love dean and cas's interaction still and think that it's lost nothing #so I think expectations are just running high #please don't burn out and start to hate it :(#riverboat gambling #wank for ts

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adme55 · 6 years

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‘Bucket List,’ Madhuri Dixit’s Marathi Debut, Is About Unfulfilled Wishes: Filmmaker Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar

When Marathi filmmaker Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar had a germ of an idea inspired by a small but significant event in the news, he never knew that it would take him as far as making a movie which would feature a star he’d long admired.

Tejas couldn’t be happier that Madhuri Dixit Nene – a childhood icon of his – chose his film to make her Marathi debut.

In Bucket List, Madhuri plays Madhura Sane, who leads a rather uninteresting life as a home-maker. She admits to being content, but, soon enough, something changes. In the teaser, we see her riding a bike, learning how to whistle, wrestling chefs, and drinking tequila smooth.

In a telephonic interview with Silverscreen, Tejas, who’s best known for his work as director and writer of a popular short film – Kalakaar (2006) – and feature films like Ajinkya (2012) and Premsutra (2013), talks about the making of Bucket List, storytelling, and why Madhuri is more than just a superstar.

You studied architecture. Why did you make the switch to cinema?

My education has helped me design better spaces and understand the ergonomics of other things. It has been a roller-coaster of sorts, but I never felt I’d made a mistake. I still don’t understand how I got sucked into this media field. Honestly, I just wanted to learn about media and technology, and when I look back at the various things I’ve done, I owe it to my upbringing and the fact that I was exposed to a variety of literature and was introduced to several stories since my childhood.

My great grandparents, in whatever little time I had spent with them, would tell me interesting stories. Through them, I realised what storytelling can be and should be. When my grandmother told stories, she didn’t have technology or equipment. Now there’s technology and other means. I have always loved reading and listening to stories, and eventually, that has made me tell stories.

Having dabbled in editing, script-writing, directing and sound engineering, which department of filmmaking do you like the best?

The two most important disciplines of filmmaking are storytelling and writing. I love them both. I firmly believe that a director has to be a writer. Only the medium changes between the two, but if you don’t know the craft, then it’s very difficult to write for films.

Bucket List seems like a simple story. How did you come up with it?

Bucket List is the story of every human being; it just so happens that our lead is a woman. The crux of the story is that everyone has unfulfilled wishes. It can be as simple as wanting to meet an old teacher again or as bizarre as building a time machine. Here, I tell the story of people who have certain wishes, but lack motivation or are bound by their priorities to pursue them. Apart from your priorities, you have to take time out for yourself. It might sound narcissistic, but it’s really self-realisation.

The lead is your typical woman-next-door, someone you’d find walking down the road while you watch out from your balcony. A common person in an uncommon situation, and how she evolves over the course of the story. It’s so simple that anyone can identify with it. It’s not larger-than-life, it’s more slice-of-life. A few years back, I read about an event in the news, it was small but significant. After reading that, I thought it would be interesting to write a story on it.

While I had the idea at the back of my mind for a while, when the time came, I wrote the story which Madhuri eventually chose to make her debut in Marathi cinema.

So Madhura Sane is based on a real person?

You look around and you’ll find a Madhura Sane everywhere. Who are they? They are common people like us, they lead a common life. My character represents all those people, but we’re all unique in our own way. I try to bring that out in the story.

How did you get Madhuri on board?

It’s a long story. I was working on another subject and for some reason, it wasn’t going the way it should’ve gone. In the midst of it, I met a friend of mine who had just turned producer. He called me up to ask if I have a film for him to produce. I told him that I do, but my ambitions are big. I told him a snippet of the story, and I had a sudden realisation that this idea could work. It motivated me to write further. That’s how I started working on Bucket List. I had Madhuri Dixit in mind. I thought if she doesn’t say ‘yes’ to this project, then I should wait, in the hope that she would agree some other day.

Meanwhile, I met Devashree Shivadekar, my co-writer. She had come from L.A and was looking for work. I told her about the story. She got really excited and approached Vivek Rangachari from DAR Motion Pictures who became one of our producers. Soon enough, we got in touch with Madhuri’s manager and, before anything, we first asked if she’d be interested in a Marathi film. Turned out, she was. We sent a five-page synopsis of the film and they loved it, and within three days, we were standing in front of Madhuri and narrating an idea which was yet to become a story.

What was the first meeting like?

We narrated the story several times to our friends from non-cinema backgrounds so as to prepare for the actual narration. When we met her, the narration went on for 30-45 minutes. After that, there was silence for ten minutes. We were kind of scared then, worried we didn’t make a good impression. She asked for some time, and later at the parking lot, we were mulling over what had happened. Fifteen minutes later, we get a call from her manager telling us that she wants to listen to the script and we were given six weeks to work on it.

Since we had worked on the flow and structure, we only had to work on the real writing part. In those six weeks, we called in different groups and narrated the story to around 70 people who were not from the industry. Five versions and six weeks later, we had it ready. Barring a few things, Madhuri was fine with the way the script had developed. A week later, we got a positive response from her, but she wanted us to work on a few other things. Three days later, she was finally on board.

Did you fight the urge to make the film more commercial, especially with a star like Madhuri in it?

Not at all. What is commercial? People usually think of commercial films as those with item numbers and other elements. With her on board, our film had already become commercial.

What was it like working with Madhuri?

Working with her was like a poem. When we started shooting, there was a storm in Mumbai. Two days before the storm hit, the set we had built had gotten drenched. It wasn’t a huge set, but for a Marathi film, building even a small set is a big thing. Ours was intricately designed, too. We were wondering if we should postpone the shoot or move to another location. A day earlier, I had sent Madhuri a message assuring her that we would do our best. I knew we had to start this project because we had been waiting for a long time. Amidst the uncertainties and contemplation, Madhuri sent me a message which read:

“A storm is coming in tomorrow on the first day of shoot. Wishing this team all the best. Let’s make a great product that creates a storm at the box-office. With warm wishes to everyone, Madhuri aka Madhura.”

It gave me more confidence – that she was transforming into the character she was about to play. She turned out to be a delight to work with. She would come to the sets early and would never have complaints till the time we said pack-up. Next to her, I’m actually a novice, but she gave me a freehand. She came prepared everyday, and that holds for the rest of the crew too. There was no shouting and screaming or people arguing on sets. We faced other difficulties, too, but we stormed through it. In fact, our drone camera broke when we were shooting a song in Langkawi. But now when you look at the song, you wouldn’t realise that it was made despite us losing one entire precious, expensive day – it’s a big deal for Marathi films. And she stood by us throughout.

Upcoming projects?

Next project is under Blue Mustang Creations, which I head; my promoters are Ashok and Aarti Subhedar. In fact, they are the ones who incubated Bucket List, too.

Bucket List, produced by Dark Horse Cinemas, DAR Motion Pictures, Blue Mustang Creations, and Dharma Productions, is scheduled to release on May 25.

*****

The Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar interview is Silverscreen exclusive.

#Madhuri Dixit #Bucket List #Bollywood

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manmanloi · 5 years

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Reflection on Comics Production

As a MLitt student, taking the Comics Production module was a challenging yet meaningful experience. For starters, I have never learned how to draw nor how to use visual editing tools. I did not take the Creating Comics module in the previous semester nor any course on scriptwriting. In other words, I am just a beginner to the comic scene. Therefore, I was thrilled when the module started.

On the first day of the semester, we were given the task to write our own script entry for a 2000AD competition. I did not expect the first thing I do for this class was to produce a story independently, with no prior sessions on how comic scripts work or how to write a comic story. Upon learning about the project, my classmates started to discuss on their ideas right away while I was still worrying about how to make a story. Taking the direction of science fiction, I began to look for inspiration…

Back in December, I went to Denmark and visited a science fiction exhibition in the Brandts, an art museum in Odense. The exhibition content was richer than I thought, ranging from the themes of dinosaur, earth’s core, under the sea, space, Egypt myth, alien, cyborg, superhero, utopia/dystopia, etc. It showcased re-imagined props, models, landscape designs, books, and movie clips. I found them intriguing and useful for brainstorming and visualizing some early ideas for the comic. The exhibition showed how much potential the science fiction genre can offer to widen the scope of storytelling. I really like the idea of robots are evolving and blending in our lives. It makes me question the difference between humans and machines. I decided to include robotic characters that disguise as humans in the story.

Picture from The Painted Skin (2008).

Picture of K/DA Ahri from League of Legends by Riot Games.

I had the idea of modernizing a Chinese folktale, The Painted Skin, as a monster disguises herself as a beautiful woman to lure men and rip their hearts out as her meals to maintain her façade. Similarly, Ahri, a character from my favourite game League of Legends, is a nine-tailed fox from the Asian folklore who also has to absorb human essence in order to stay in her mortal form. In the game’s alternate universe, Ahri is part of a virtual music group “K/DA” made by Riot Games to promote a set of in-game skins. I was hoping to create an intergalactic band like the “K/DA” that travels across the planets to perform, but they are actually robots that have been sucking out the happiness from their audience to become more like humans.

Whenever they perform live, their music would absorb the enthusiasm from the crowd, leaving them depressed and lifeless. However, their music is not strong enough to manipulate strong and deep emotions. As a literature student, I believe that only humans are capable of writing literary pieces that can truly move the others. Therefore, I introduced a poet as the main protagonist who goes around with his poems. One day, a band member took the poet’s collection and decided to turn his poem into a song. In the end, when the band performed it, the song was so genuine and powerful that it drove the audience crazy and killing themselves. This would grant the robots so much “human energy”.

In mid-February, Monty dropped by the studio to give the class some advice on the project. I showed him the synopsis and he pointed out that the protagonist does not really have a motive. He suggested me to write more about the poet and his active investigation into the band. He explained this would allow the readers to attach and follow the poet around to participate in the discovery of the truth together. By the time the secret is revealed, it will have a bigger impact.

However, I could not think of any legitimate reason for a poet to wander around the band to do investigation. And I do not have any poetic verse on my mind to put into the lyrics to show how “powerful” these poems are. Therefore, I realized this character is not suitable for my comic anymore. I changed his character to a detective which I believe it has a more reasonable motive to get suspicious over the band and can carry out some form of investigation.

I amended the synopsis to the following:

“Following a detective who connects the mystery of increasing depression rate to the intergalactic music band Soulstealers, he investigates before the band is going to perform on his planet. During his talk with the band members, he leaves his poetry collection to them as they are interested in it. After a surreal experience at the concert, he is diagnosed with depression as well.

“At the clinic, he is told an ancient folktale of the Painted Skin, where a monstrous creature had to consume human hearts to maintain its disguise as a beautiful woman. He becomes determined that the band is going to threaten the galaxy with their music, but no one believes in him.

“The band releases a new song in the final planet of their tour which results in a mass suicide of the audience. The members are impressed with the effect of the new song as they acknowledged the poetry collection as their inspiration to produce music that can suck out the most human emotions possible. Unzipping their skins in the backstage, they reveal themselves as robots, who are trying to become humans.”

As my plot was becoming a sound story, I began to work on the scriptwriting and drawing thumbnails. I honestly had no idea on how to start writing a script and what a thumbnail is. All I knew about script is the Courier font. I felt helpless – there was no workshops or lessons on planning out a story or putting pen to paper. In a desperate move, I decided I would try to learn them by myself. I went to the library to look for books on writing comic scripts. I found a book by Peter David called Writing for Comics & Graphic Novels which I thought would be perfect to helping me out!

In the book, I have learned about the Marvel style and the full script style. I have learnt that the speech balloons are mostly kept “anchored” (148). When naming the characters, the book suggests linking up words associated to the characters, to find some cultural references related to these traits and to create some social scenarios to build up their personalities (on how they would react). I named the two of the band members Maria and HALi, which are references to Maria the robot from Metropolis (1927) and the HAL the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Following the guidelines, I wrote the first page for my comic and doodled some thumbnails alongside with dialogues, so I could pair them with the right amount of words in each panel:

In mid-March, the class had a meeting at the studio where we got the chance to let our instructor, Phil, to check on our works. Besides approving my story, Phil commented that the formatting of my script was not very common as I named each panel by alphabetical order like the book did. Therefore, I updated the script in the correct format and started to draw the thumbnails properly. With the rundown of the story in mind, I drew the thumbnails, then updated my script on top of that. In this way, I could make sure each panel can include the right amount of information.

When visualizing the idea, I took inspiration from a newly-released Netflix sci-fi anthology – Love, Death + Robots. In one of the episodes, Good Hunting, it involves a nine-tailed fox/ “huli jing” (wicked fox lady in Chinese). The setting is in a steampunk colonial Hong Kong, which is my hometown. In the end, the fox lady infused her ancient magic with modern technology and became a robotic nine-tailed fox to hunt men. This is a perfect source for my story as it also references to the fox folktale and having charming performers revealing themselves as robots. I just thought the episode is stunning and amazing and see so much potential in my story as well.

Picture from Good Hunting in Love, Death + Robots (2019).

My classmate, Thanos, told me he would scan his hand-drawn thumbnails and edit them on Photoshop. I do not know how to edit drawn images on Photoshop. Therefore, I used the Comic Life 3 software that my professor has recommended me, to make my own framing for the panels. I printed the frames out, and drew on top of it by hand, then scanned them in again to become my final thumbnails. I have also shown my thumbnails to the MDes students, to see if they could understand my instruction through an artist’s perspective. Tony gave me some suggestions on the speech balloon placements and reading orders.

After updating the script, I have sent my work to my fellow MLitt students in the course, so we could cross-check each other’s work and exchange feedback. One of the advices from Thanos was to add a defining font for the band in the comic so to act as a branding and leaving visual hints of their robotic natures. Story-wise, they told me to add more clues, foreshadowing and explanation that the band has to consume human emotions gathered from their live performances. In terms of writing, Holly suggested me to proofread on my grammar as I sometimes describe the scene with present tense but sometimes with past tense.

After receiving feedback from my classmates, I moved on to finalizing my script. I ran through my work to Cam Kennedy when he dropped by the studio. I was so glad and relieved when he said that my story was well-presented. Encouraged by his words, I referenced the formats of my classmates and did one last amendment to the script and added the synopsis in the cover.

Looking back on the project, I am quite satisfied with what I wrote, given that this is my first time writing a comic script. When writing for each panel, I just knew how much contents to include. I realized that this could be a difficult step as my fellow classmate Holly had to cut down some exposition. I think this might be something that I am good at and should focus on improving this skill as my strength. On the other hand, character design, formatting and grammar are something that I should pay more attention to. I am grateful for Monty’s advice about the character’s motive and Holly’s help on proofreading the grammar of my writing. I wish I could have spent more time researching for comic scripts in the archive so to catch up with the script formats.

The second project in the module began as we were invited to the V&A Dundee during the second week of the semester. The class visited the V&A exhibition together and I felt like we were on a field trip which was very fun. Until we were told to make our own webcomic for the V&A website, in which they did not provide any “MLitt exception” like the scriptwriting option for the 2000AD project. I was devastated and felt helpless once again. I suggested to write an article by interviewing my class when they are producing their webcomics. Chris then suggested: “how about you make a comic on making the comics!” Phil also suggested that I can incorporate real life photos with the comics by visual editing tools. I began to ask my MDes classmates if they would be willing to help me to do some extra drawings and interviews.

A week later, the V&A Dundee staff came to listen to our ideas. My idea was to interview my classmates on making their webcomics at different stages of the project. When I told them my plan, it sounded very vague because I did not have any visual support to visualize the comic. Phil told me about a software called Comic Life which provides templates and visual aids for making a comic. The V&A staff reminded me to make the contents accessible to everyone – by explaining the context of the project and using easier phrases instead of comic jargons. After that, I tried out the programme and made the decision of making four issues of comics consisting of four panels each.

In order to give a sense of what it would look like, I mocked up two issues for the presentation. I edited my personal photos and placed them on some photos I have taken at the V&A and the DJCAD studio as the background. I wanted the photos to look like they were “drawn” so I processed them with different filters. Here are some slides I have presented:

After getting the approval and some advice for the presentation, I began to have small talks with my classmates and checking on them in the studio. I tried to take notes of who has material that is suitable for each of the issues, hence allocating them in different issues and reaching out to ask them for one piece of cartoon-style portrait of themselves. I was a bit worried if they would reject me since this means taking some of their extra time to draw and interview for me. Luckily, they were all on board and excited to see the idea comes to life.

I dropped by the studio for a week after the class is done with the 2000AD project so I could interview my classmates and took photos of their working areas. One of the difficulties for me was paraphrasing my classmates’ answers as I did not want to fill the whole panel with words without stripping away the gist of their words. I was worried about not following the unspoken rule of keeping each bubble under 25 words. However, I realized that the nature of this comic is more like a comic essay, so it makes sense to have more words.

The rest of my work was rather simple: I just had to wait for my classmates to submit their drawings to me, process their works and edited them to match the composition of each panel. I decided to unify the colour format of the comic to orange and blue which was inspired by the V&A Dundee website’s colour scheme.

When the V&A staff came by the studio for a final checking, they told me to amend the branding by using the full title of “V&A Dundee.” Phil asked me to adjust the speech bubbles so the words would not get so close to the edges. I tried to change the shape of the bubbles from circles to squares and changed the font from “Antihero Intl BB” to “Digital Strip.” By doing so, the gaps in the bubbles were widen while not covering up too much space of the overall panels. However, during the final presentation, Phil reminded me that this issue was still very visible and told me to use Photoshop to edit the lettering properly. Rayne kindly took me to the library and showed me how to do the work as I worried that it would “squeeze” the words as I resize them. Apparently, if I hold “shift,” I could adjust the size of the words in proportion which was a very helpful tip!

While working on this project, I really tried to capture all the important bits of the process and show the readers what it is like to make a comic. I wanted to do justice for all my classmates who helped me – to let them show their efforts and brilliant ideas behind each panel and to keep my webcomic as a record for the class to remember. Collaborating with the V&A Dundee was a really big deal and would look great on my resume so I wanted to give all I can offer to this project. There were many first-times in this project and seeing my comic coming together as a whole really surprised me for how far I have come. I have learned the spirit of “never say no” and be brave to give everything a try – luckily, my classmates were kind and patient to teach me through my mistakes and instructors gave me some helpful advice along the way.

The third project is the logo design which marks my first time of using Illustrator. I did not plan to make my own brand, so I did not have anything on my mind for a logo. The only thing I had been working on for this module was the blog so I decided to make a logo for the blog – Man Man Loi. It is a Romanized English for the Cantonese words 漫慢來 with the literal meaning for each word being “comic,” “slow,” and “come” respectively. I named my blog this way to symbolize my journey through this module – taking small steps in learning new skills and progress as a comic student. The phrase can mean “take it slow” in English. I believe in the attitude of “patient work makes a fine product” which comes from a Chinese idiom. If I ever take this brand to my work in the future, I would like it to represent my attitude in working as an editor with this belief.

Since the phrase is related to “taking steps,” I wanted to use stairs as the shape of the logo which symbolizes stepping upwards to the goal. Since reading English text is from top left towards the right hand side, the original line up of the words would read in a descending manner which did not match the concept of stepping up. Therefore, I changed the starting point of the words from the bottom left. There were also scrapped designs of a stick figure walking up the stairs or the dot of the “i” bouncing upwards. However, they looked ridiculous with my ammeter Illustrator skills and did not really help to signal the motion of going upwards. Therefore, I decided to keep it simple and only showed the English and Chinese words on a pink staircase. For the Chinese words, I struggled between placing the words on the stairs or on one side vertically so I asked my friends and they all prefer the latter one.

All in all, I cannot believe that I have made it through this module. Every task was a new challenge that sounded so impossible for me in the first place. Everything was very over-whelming for me and I had a tough time adapting to them. I remember something Phil told the MLitt students in the beginning: “Don’t let your limitation limits you.” These words pushed me forward to accept these challenges and I have come to realize that my limitations opened new ideas for me as well. For example, if it was not for the “no MLitt exception” in the V&A Dundee project, I would not have thought of making a comic about making comics! These experiences encouraged me to try new things and not be afraid to ask for help. I kept asking my classmates along the way and they were all very nice: doing an extra drawing for me, spending time to do an interview, teaching me on how to use different programs, reviewing my works etc. I have realized that my classmates are my biggest assets and I am forever grateful for that.

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miximax-hell · 7 years

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First of all: KURIMATSU FAMILY. THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME IN YEARS.

...Ahem.

It’s been about (over, cough) 3 months since my last proper post. Sigh. Life sure sucks when you finish what was the best semester of your university career and then you’re suddenly back home and wondering how to deal with... life. A life that you didn’t even think about for quite a few months and suddenly hits you in the face.

That kind of drained me. Sinusitis didn’t help either, but it was mostly a combination of feeling out of place in my own house, a complete lack of motivation to be productive (then again, I’m on holidays, so I guess taking a break after uni was a legit thing to do) and just bad feelings in general. Not very nice.

But oh well! The best way to stop overthinking and start acting is to act, so even if it took me a while to get started, here I am with the first miximax I have designed in quiiite some time. And nothing suits this heavy amount of rust better than a character that is known for sucking in general, like our much beloved Megane Kakeru.

Luckily for him, though, Megane is miximaxed with Yamano Ban, the (somewhat) charismatic protagonist of the Danball Senki series! And if you’re thinking, “hey, you cheeky little bastard! You always say you will only use one character from each franchise and you’ve already used Hiro before!,” I’ll kindly redirect you to this ancient post where I said that I may use up to two characters from L5 franchises if the matches were nice enough. And considering I thought of this one waaay before I thought of Toramaru’s, I really wanted to make use of that exception. I asked @great-blaster about her opinion on something related to this miximax around... 4 years ago, so go figure.

Well, that was one long intro. More information regarding Megane’s miximax can be found under the cut. As it used to happen back when I was, you know, not lazy.

Okay, so! It’s been a while, we’re all excited about Ares coming out soon and we could use a little action, so let’s focus on Megane’s powers! This whole poor mood has kept me from doing some actual and proper thinking, but I think writing will help me come up with ideas for him on the go, so let’s tackle it one subject at a time.

First of all, let’s start what the one thing I do know, and one of the main reasons to want Ban as an aura. Ban is a scout character in Chrono Stone and Galaxy, and he has an exclusive hissatsu technique that no other character in the game can use, simply because it involves the use of Ban’s LBX. This hissatsu is called Glorious Ray, and is taken straight from Danball Senki W, where it’s one of Ban’s strongest attack functions (the DanSen equivalent of Inazuma’s special techniques). And, gosh, am I a sucker for exclusive things. So of course it’d be a very deciding factor and one of MegaBan’s main perks.

Glorious Ray isn’t just an exclusive technique, but a really, really powerful one. Just so you can get an idea, in Galaxy, it has a base power of 190, while The Earth ∞, a 3-player combo hissatsu that is supposed to be one of the strongest techniques in the game, has a base power of 200. Definitely not something to mess with. And while it is indeed very overpowered, this matches Megane perfectly too.

Those who haven’t played the games wouldn’t know, but Megane is prone to learning extremely powerful techniques when he reaches very high levels. His abilities include Divine Arrow, Chaos Break, Fuurinkazan Destroyer, Saikyou Eleven Hadou and even the aforementioned The Earth ∞. Truly a force to reckon, even if his stats still let him down. In any case, learning terribly overpowered hissatsus is common for him, and getting one more suits him perfectly.

Now, this covers the first hissatsu, but not the second one. A quick look at Inazuma’s wiki will tell us that Ban learns 3 other moves: Odin Sword, Decoy Release and Fukutsu no Seishin. We may choose one of these or try to come up with a whole new one, so let’s see.

Odin Sword is completely out of the question. This is Fideo’s hissatsu and I love him too much to steal his technique so cheaply. In my heart, the only person who can use Odin Sword besides Fideo is Handa. ...Whoops, my bias is showing. Excuse me.

Decoy Release maaay work, but I don’t especially dig it. It feels so out of place. You wouldn’t relate this technique to Ban at all, so it isn’t tempting to add it to the mix.

And last, but not least, we have Fukutsu no Seishin. If you don’t feel like checking the wiki, I’ll tell you that Fukutsu no Seishin is a skill that improves a character’s hissatsus when he or she is tired. This does suit Ban, since *+*+*drama*+*+* forces him to have clutch wins all the time. ww When you are tired and almost dead is when you awaken your true power, and let’s be honest--Megane spends most of his time in the field tired and almost dead, so this could actually prove to be a wonderful skill for him to have. Not to mention that staying mixitransed is said to drain you very fast (and it does in the games), so he would be able to activate this ability quite early on.

What is the bad thing, then? Well... in terms of *+*+*drama*+*+* and general Inazuma storytelling, skills aren’t the most... interesting things. We want explosions and quick moves and stuff, not a skill that suddenly activates out of the blue and makes you stronger. ...Then again, Pokémon DP based Ash’s Chimchar’s power entirely on his Blaze ability. If they could do that, I guess I can too. I guess.

But, yeah. I’ll keep this for now since it’s pretty much the perfect skill for Megane, but I’ll see if I can come up with something better.

(I doubt it.)

With that out of the way, let’s jump into what hissatsu would get powered up by this miximax. The easy answer is... none. You see, Megane and Ban fit so well together, but, for the most part, Megane’s hissatsus don’t fit him at all. The only ones that fit him are Megane Crash (obviously), Perfect Course, the ever-present Yakubyougami, maybe Future Eye... and Super Scan. And, if I had to choose, this last hissatsu would be the one getting the miximax boost.

Super Scan, a game-exclusive technique that has two different versions (an offensive one and a defensive one, both of which Megane can use), involves a bunch of screens appearing around the user, which tell them how the rival will move and how to counter him/her, whether it is to steal the ball or to dribble. The single reason why this could work is because, much like MegaBan has access to Ban’s LBX, he also has access to his CCM! The little phone-like thing they use to control the LBXs, that is.

Now, these CCMs have screens--and multiple ones, at times. Couldn’t MegaBan check all the information that Super Scan provides from his CCM, which would make it more accurate due to the use of, well, actual technology rather than sheer Inazuma logic? Well, there’s a thought. I’m not sure if it’s a thought I’ll actually develop, but there’s a thought.

This, however, gives me a new and exciting idea. Those who have watched Danball Senki will know (and if you haven’t and you plan to do so, spoiler ahead for the rest of the paragraph) that some LBXs and users can use special modes to power themselves up in the middle of the fight. It certainly would be useful to be able to have a power-up of that kind for Megane and for Toramaru. Some kind of WX/WV Mode to use in the aforementioned clutches. In terms of Inazuma logic, this could be some Chara Change/alter ego thing with some kind of time restriction, a hissatsu tactics of sorts or even a skill that requires to be losing to activate, like Never Give Up. There are so many possibilities, thankfully!

End of spoilers here. You may read on. ww

Now, for the last subject to cover, we find ourselves stuck. An impasse, so to speak.

I always think about how a miximax affects the vessel’s natural abilities. What changes? Which of the vessel’s abilities improve? Which don’t? Incidentally, which do actually get worse? And how do these changes make the vessel a more unique player?

Well, the thing is that Megane has no skills. He sucks. Not like Handa, but for real. He was, quite literally, completely useless before the miximax, so we really don’t have anything to work with. His only redeeming point, if we may call it that, are his super strong hissatsus, which are often nearly useless with such poor stats (save for a couple of games where he was made to be sliiightly better. But let’s roll with the general “forever shitty” tone).

This means that Megane is... nothing. He is a proper zero. He has no real skills to add to, save for a ludicrously high luck stat in Chrono Stone and Galaxy--the only games where Ban is a playable character. So we can assume that Megane + Ban = lucky Ban. In that case, let’s look at Ban and see what we can do.

Ban boasts an impressive kick stat--better than young Gouenji’s and just as good as Ishido’s. He’s definitely a powerhouse with super good hissatsus to boot. We are quite over the whole “look at how powerful I am” thing--if we just want power, we can resort to GouYuu or SomeKyu, for example. So, no. Sheer power isn’t quite enough anymore.

There is, however, a way to make MegaBan special without making weird things up and respecting the actual information provided by the canon of the games.

We have a fast and powerful striker--GouYuu. We have a massive powerhouse that hits like a truck despite being slow--SomeKyu. We have a witty and tricky striker who plays mindgames on his rivals--MaxLink. And... a few undescribed forwards, too. ww But MegaBan relies on an entirely different concept to make him special and... usable. Worthy.

MegaBan is the Crit King.

In the Inazuma games, much like in any other RPG, our characters may perform critical moves, which end up being heaps stronger than they would normally be. Incidentally, they may also miss, which means the move will be heaps weaker than usual. Whether a character is prone to crits or to misses is based on its luck stat and not on the move used.

Megane has a huge luck stat, as mentioned, which means many of his moves will be critical. With such terrible stats, however, even his crits won’t be anything special. Nothing to be too proud of.

Megane, however, is miximaxed with Ban, who boasts a power that can rival that of adult ace strikers like Gouenji even though he’s still a kid. He is an all-around great player, but probably not all that special compared to the rest of the members of this big miximax team.

But an above average striker who lands crits continuously, thus improving not only the strength of his shots, but the strength of absolutely everything he does, is a whole different matter. MegaBan’s actual strength is constantly being multiplied due to his sheer dumb luck (and, potentially, the aforementioned skills), thus improving his shots, dribbles and steals greatly. Definitely a very multitalented forward and a great addition to the team, if you ask me.

...At least, for as long as he can stay mixitransed. Or for as long as his natural skill Yakubyougami doesn’t play tricks on him.

#Megane Kakeru #original Raimon #settei #Inazuma Eleven #miximax #mixi max #info #powers

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